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ENLISTING FOR CHRIST” . 
AND THE CHURCH": ewe” 






HOWARD AGNEW JOHNSTON 





ASSOCIATION PRESS 


New Yor«: 347 Mapison AVENUB 
1924 | 


CopyYRIGHT, I9QI9, BY 


Tue INTERNATIONAL COMMITIEE OF 
Younc MEN’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 


Printed in the United States of America 


TO 
MY BELOVED WIFE 
IDA LAMSON JOHNSTON 





CONTENTS 


Rae TCHR VOTE oh eee i.e ce Lp at CMPN en ee aun iy eRe DLP UU Cue he ATE ie ix 


Study I. Enlisting Ourselves 


First DIVO ARAUJUT OF CHRIST IVY BiG U/OST (Nie i aires ete snes I 
Second Day: If OuT OF CHRIST, WE ARE SIN-SICK................ 3 
Third Day: IF OuT oF CHRIST, WE ARE SLAVES TO SIN............ 4 


Fourth Day: IF Out oF CHRIST, WE HAVE FORFEITED OUR SONSHIP. 6 
Fifth Day: THouGH SAVED, WE STILL ARE TEMPTED AND TRIED.... 7 
Sixth Day: SINCE CHRIST Has SAVED Us, WE OwE ALL TO Him..... 9 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... . 2.2... 0.0 cece ce eeeee II 
Study II. We Are Saved to Serve 
First Day: EVERY ONE Is SERVING-——-WHo Is THE MASTER?........ 13 
Second Day: THE PROBLEM OF SELF-DENIAL........-.-..2-2-0005- 14 
PUR ON ORB VICE AND POWER i iiciieiszainiel osc oid lis igealaia’ srattannis aan 16 
Fourth Day: Gop’s FIRST PLAN FOR OUR SERVICE. ..........0005- 17 
Os HE, CRIME ORS UNCONCERN J, lia rie 'sieue | Lar Onuve ale ya nace 19 
Sixth Day: THE CONSTRAINT OF CHRIST’S LOVE...........22-0005 20 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... ...... 00s cece eee e ees 22 
Study III. Realizing God’s Redeeming Love 
First Day: Gop’s VALUATION OF AN IMMORTAL SOUL .............. 24 
second Day: Gon’S COMPASSION FOR MEN... 2. oe cee ce eens 25 
euro IUGYhGOD S DESTINY FOR! MEN Hillel Fe aly ciate sialels 27 
REUTER Vor C0) ASLU AOE SRA 4 Ci Ue sletn cde w\ <r Aad Atal eta aie tua dct 28 
SEALY SS ODLS (STR TIOF COE RIST sh Oil sleet 55%): 3s Boat scar eleka mete lel dip 30 
pecier ay; (s0D\S Gitt OF THE HOLY. SPIRIT. oss) a alee 31 
ErueniRo TY: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS yo.) a lcie welecle wate s 33 
Study IV. Enlisting Others 
First Day: HESITATION TO ATTEMPT THIS WORK..............+5. 35 
Second Day: THE NEED OF INTELLIGENT PREPARATION............ 36 
Third Day: THE DUTY OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS................... 38 
_ Fourth Day: A TRAINING CLASs IN EVERY CHURCH AND ASSOCIATION. 40 
Fifth Day: ORGANIZING WORKERS IN CHURCH AND ASSOCIATION..... 42 
Deere ye AGING TTT OENINETE Si) Pil tae se o's dn wate. 4! ous [oi ovelnlon aye 43 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... 1.0.0... eee e eee eees 45 
Study V. Special Plans for Bible Classes 
First Day: SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN BIBLE SCHOOLS............. 47 
mecore LGY: ADULT BIBLE) CLASSES 10/006) Ui "3 Le gi aiel eo Ui eyelelinrs (aie 48 
pute Day. KECRUITING: NEW MEMBERS)... 1.0. ear el yells 50 
MeO ROBLEMS, OF ADOLESCENCE» Ws iars cali eet val pe dalste va fama 52 
Fifth Day: A PROGRAM FOR QUIET, INTENSIVE WORK............. 53 
Sixth Day: TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE TO BE SOUL WINNERS....... 55 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... 2.2... cee eee eee nes 56 


Vv 


vi CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Study VI. Personal Recruiting Equipment 
First Day: ‘THE SPIRIT OF OBEDIENCE.» 0.2. 3. 04 «oe ee 58 
Second Day: CULTIVATING CHRIST’S LOVE FOR THE LOST.......... 59 
Third Day: FAITH IN Gop’s POWER TO SAVE.........-...0 eevee 61 
Fourth Day: PuRITY—THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EXAMPLE........... 63 
Fifth Day: PRAYER—THE SECRET OF POWER............0..ee00e- 65 
Sixth Day: KNOWING THE BIBLE—Gop’s ENSAMPLES.............. 66 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... 1.2... cece cece eee ees 68 
Study VII. Taking God into Account 
Furst Day; Gop ONLY, CAN SAVE 3 yu 505 aie) aei clots oa eure oe eee 70 
Second Day: CHRISTIANS ARE Gop’s INSTRUMENTS....... Pini a © 71 
Third Day: Gop Dogs DIvINE THINGS TODAY...............0000- 73 
Fourth Day: EXPECTANT FAITH HONORS GOD................0000: 75 
Fifth Day: Not POWER, BUT CHANNELS OF POWER............... 77 
Suxth Day: No Case’ T0o HARD FOR GOD). Foe eo ee a ee 79 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS... .........cceccceccces 81 
Study VIII. How to Approach People 
First Day: WHEN NECESSARY, STUDY THE INDIVIDUAL............. 83 
Second Day: MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR AN INTERVIEW.......... 84 
Third Day: HAVE OTHERS PRAY WITH YOU FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.... 86 
Fourth Day: BEGIN WITH A CONFESSION OF UNWORTHINESS........ 88 
Fifth Day: FinD EVERY POSSIBLE COMMON GROUND............... 89 
Sixth Day: DISCOVER His DEGREE OF FAITH....,....5.. 00 bey) cen 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. ........cececcceceeees 93 
Study IX. Principles for Dealing with People 

Farst Day: KEEP TO THE: POSITIVE SIDE .)0. 602 ee 95 
Second Day: MAKE PLAIN OUR NEED OF CGHRIST.............-2+. 97 
Third Day: BE HONEST ABOUT THE FATALITY OF SIN............. 98 

Fourth Day: TESTIFY TO CHRIST’S WORK OF GRACE IN YOUR OWN 
DS ERBE PS sl sales Walle ony begtd a el oy SEER che 5) tm ret Ue RoE sn We ed aa 100 
Fifth Day: EMPHASIZE CHRIST’S RIGHTFUL CLAIM UPON OUR LIVES. 102 
Sixth Day: Use Gop’s WorD TO MEET SPECIAL POINTS........... 103 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS..........2cceccecceces 105 


Study X. Scripture Answers to Common Excuses 


First Day: EXCUSES: BORN OF FEAR. . 0). 0 Jk sah oss salen ee cee 107 
(1) “Tt am too great a sinner’”’ 
(2) ‘I cannot hold out’’ 

Second Day: EXCUSES BORN OF SELF-COMPLACENCY.........-.000% 108 
(1) “I am satisfied with myself as I am” 
(2) “I am as good as most church members” 

Third Day: Excuses BORN OF INDIFFERENCE..........eecceeeues 109 
(1) “TI do not feel like it’”’ 
(2) “Not today: some other day” 


a = 


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CONTENTS Vii 


Fourth Day: Excusrs BorN OF A CRITICAL SPIRIT........-.-.205- 110 
(1) “Too many hypocrites in the Church” 
(2) ‘The Church is not truly Christian” 

Fifth Day: EXCUSES INVOLVING EXPERIENCE. ......-.00seeeeeeee- 112 
(1) Waiting for some wonderful experience 
(2) Fearful of inconsistencies 

Sixth Day: EXCUSES INVOLVING CONDUCT......... sce seeeeceeeee 114 
(1) Unwilling to give up some things for Christ 
(2) Hindered by business or social connections 

Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS.......-. esses cere ees 116 


Study XI. Scripture Answers to Common Objections 
First Day: CuurcH MEMBERSHIP Is Not NECESSARY TO SALVATION. 118 


Second Day: DouBTS ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL ........------+-- 119 
Third Day: DIFFICULTIES WHICH SOME FIND IN THE BIBLE........ 120 
Fourth Day: QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HEREAFTER ..............++-5 123 
Fifth Day: “I CANNoT BELIEVE WHat I CANNOT UNDERSTAND”’.... 125 
Sixth Day: How To DISCOVER OSTENSIBLE OBJECTIONS.........-.. 127 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. ......... esses eee cece 129 


Study XII. Strengthening Weak Christians 


First Day: THE ViTAL IMPORTANCE OF THIS SERVICE..........+.-.: 131 
Second Day: THE BIG BROTHER SPIRIT AT WORK............-..-- 133 
Third Day: ARRANGING INTERVIEWS WITH STRONG CHRISTIANS..... 135 
Fourth Day: RECLAIMING BACKSLIDERS........- eee sees cess ee eee 137, 
Fifth Day: ‘(OUT OF WEAKNESS THEY WERE MADE STRONG”...... 138 
Sixth Day: “SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN’... ... ee ccc eee e cece cee eee ens 140 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. ......-0 essere eee ceees 142 


Study XIII. Christ’s Call to a Life Work 


First Day: EDNLISTING FOR LIFE... 2... eee cece tere eee ee ences 144 
Second Day: SUCCESS OR FAILURE?........-b eee cece cece eect ences 145 
Third Day: MEASURES OF MANHOOD. ......-- sees cece eee eeceees 147 
Fourth Day: WHat Is Most WorTH WHILE?..........---- 000000: 149 
Fifth Day: WHERE Dogs Gop CALL MEP... . 1.6... eee ee eee eee 150 
Sixth Day: QUESTIONS ABOUT THE COST OF FIDELITY ............. 152 
Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS........---2eesseeeeees 154 


Study XIV. Abiding in Christ—Increasing Fruitfulness 


First Day: Curist RIGHTFULLY ExPEcTs INCREASING RESULTS..... 157 
Second Day: DEEPENING OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST........... 158 
Third Day: STEADFAST LOYALTY TO THE WILL OF GOD............ 161 
Fourth Day: AN ABIDING Passion TO ATTAIN MORE PERFECTLY.... 162 
Fifth Day: GRACE SUFFICIENT FOR EVERY VICTORY.........-+-+-- 164. 
Sixth Day: FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT WITHIN AND WITHOUT.......... 166 


Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. ....---.esseceeeceeees 167 


Viii CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Study XV. The Blessed Rewards 

First Day: Curist EMPHASIZES THE PLACE OF REWARDS........... 169 
Second Day: REALIZING Gop’s PURPOSE FOR Us IN THis LIFE...... 170 
Third Day: SHARING THE FELLOWSHIP OF CuHrRIST’s Joy Now..... 172 
Fourth Day: THE BLESSEDNESS OF BEING RATHER THAN OF HAVING. 174 
Fifth Day: WELCOMED INTO EVERLASTING HABITATIONS........... 175 
Sixth Day: THE GLORIES OF THE REDEEMED..............-.000-- 177 


Seventh Day: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. .........-ececuceceees 179 


PREFATORY NOTE 


Some years ago Association Press published “Studies for Per- 
sonal Workers” from the pen of the author. The kindly reception 
it received in many lands indicated a need for some discussion of 
the subject which would present motives and methods for winning 
people to Christ and the Church. 

In addition to this constant emphasis upon the duty and privilege 
of all Christians to win others to Christ, the present book seeks to 
emphasize the manifest duty, all too-long neglected, of ministers 
and Christian leaders to make a place in the program of every 
church and Association for the training of willing members to do 
intelligent personal work along this line of service. Specific plans 
are suggested for the organization and development of this work. 
These are plans which have been successfully applied in actual 
experience in pastoral service. There is. a further discussion of the 
obligations resting upon Christian young people to give themselves 
to some definite life-work which will seek to hasten the coming 
of the Kingdom of God in the world. 

We live in crisis times. The Church of Christ never faced a 
more compelling challenge in its history than that which confronts 
it today. The leading Protestant communions have awakened to 
the imperative task to be accomplished in order that more adequate 
efforts be made for the advancement of the Kingdom of God upon 
earth. The first advance has been a great forward step in steward- 
ship. The next advance must be a genuine consecration to the 
work of enlisting multitudes for Christ and the Church, who have 
hitherto been unreached both at home and abroad. Dr. William 
Hiram Foulkes, Executive Secretary of the New Era Movement, 
and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Interchurch 
World Movement, after reading part of the manuscript, kindly 
wrote: “It is timely, suggestive, practical, and intensely spiritual. 
Such qualities should insure a wide reading of its pages.” 

One is asked, What change has the War made in the program to 


ix 


x PREFATORY NOTE 


be adopted by the followers of Christ in this work of enlisting 
people in his cause? After much experience in cantonments and 
naval stations, the writer testifies that again and again he was 
asked to “give a straight gospel message, for the men want just 
that.’ Moreover, careful interviews with workers in France 
brought the universal testimony that while many edified and enter- 
tained the soldiers in a general way, whenever the individual man 
was really helped it was done by bringing him into right personal 
relation to Jesus Christ as his Saviour. What more need be said? 
The War did not change human nature, nor the fact of sin, nor the 
need of Christ in every life, nor the results which always follow 
when the old Gospel is presented faithfully to honest men. Every 
age develops new features which involve the adaptation of the 
truth; but it is the eternal truth as it is in Christ, who is “the same 
yesterday, today and forever.” 

The Studies are arranged with a view to a weekly meeting of a 
class. The “Suggestions for the Class,” given for the seventh day 
of each week, are intended to give direction to the discussions in 
the class, and also to help the individual to seize upon the salient 
points in each day’s lesson. For the book is equally available for 
individual study, in or out of a class. 

A statement should be made about the Scripture quotations, since 
they do not follow any one version throughout. The fact that 
several versions are now in use by students of the Word, and that 
one version has advantages over others at different points, will 
justify a variation by the author in using whatever translation 
would seem best to express his conviction as to the meaning of 
the original text. 

The author does not presume to have exhausted the subject; but 
trusts that the material given may serve as a basis for discussion, 
to be supplemented and enlarged, especially in the light of actual 
experiences by members of the class, as they begin to put the sug- 
gestions into daily practice. The little book is sent forth with the 
prayerful hope that it may prove helpful to many who desire to be 
usable in God’s hand in winning people to open and consecrated 
allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church. 

Chicago, 1919. Howarp AGNEW JOHNSTON. 


STUDY I 
ENLISTING OURSELVES 


First Day: If Out of Christ, We Are Lost 


Jesus Christ asked the question recorded in Mark 8: 36, 37, 
“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
forfeit his own life?” It is the most searching of all questions. 
Various ideas are involved in the common phrase “a lost soul.” 
Some of these are arbitrary. But there is nothing arbitrary about 
realities, for they are in the nature of things. When a person is 
lost, it means just one thing: he does not know his way. Whether 
it be a little child in a great city, or a strong man in the depths of a 
dense forest, one is as helpless as the other in so far as he does not 
know his way. Each needs a guide. It is exactly so with every 
one who does not know God. And there is just one true way to 
the knowledge of God. Christ said: “I am the way and the truth 
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me. ... He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14: 5,9). Christ 
also said: “This is life eternal, that they should know thee, the 
only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” 
(John 17: 3). 

Some years ago a young lawyer came to talk with the writer 
about some ostensible intellectual difficulties. We canvassed the 
ground and he admitted the reasonableness of the answers to his 
suggestions. Yet in a little while he was traveling in a circle, 
coming back to the same old points. We then asked this question: 
“Mr. C , do you realize that you are a lost man?” Impatiently 
he replied: “Oh, you preachers make me tired. I am no more lost 
than you are.’ Then we asked him what he would think if he 
were to go out to the street and find a child who would report 
that she was lost. He replied that he would think of her as not 
knowing her way. “Exactly!” we replied, “and in the last hour 
you have absolutely proved that you do not know your way as an 
immortal soul. Now let us be honest. If you do not know your 


I 





2 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST’ AND THE CHURCH 


way, you are lost. And if you never find your way, you are lost 
forever. There is no possible escape from these self-evident facts. 
We do not need to go to any book in order to realize the unescap- 
able truth.” For a moment he was silent. He saw it clearly. For 
the first time he realized his genuine, vital need. Up to that 
moment he had felt quite sufficient unto himself. Now he knew he 
needed a guide who could show him the way. His voice changed 
its tone, as he said: “Well, "want light.” After that it was easy 
to lead to the frank admission that no other person could lead him 
into the truth but Jesus Christ. He found the way. 

The tragic pathos of humanity is this dulness of human hearts 
in realizing that men are lost if they are out of Christ. The Apostle 
Paul explains it in Rom. 1: 21, “Because that, when they knew God, 
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became 
vain in their imaginations (own reasonings), and their foolish heart 
was darkened.” Pride of self is at the root of man’s unwillingness 
to be honest with himself, and admit his need. But until men do 
admit their need, there is no turning to a source of help higher than 
themselves, and they get further away from God. Even the dis- 
ciples made slow progress into the light because it was so difficult 
at first for them to believe that God was actually incarnate in 
Jesus of Nazareth; but in time they realized the truth, and then 
the new day dawned for them and for the race. } 

This need of the lost world is written on every page of human 
history in blood and tears. It is the echo of man’s despair because 
he is without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2: 12). 
Seneca, the best of pagan philosophers, took poison and opened his 
veins, crying: “Ah, if one might only have a guide to truth!” The 
cry of Job 23: 3 is as old as the human heart, “Oh, that I knew 
where I might find him!” To all such Jesus Christ brings the 
sufficient answer in his life and truth. But it is not enough to have 
a guide. His readiness to guide is of no avail unless we follow him 
as he leads. He asks no mere credulity; but challenges us to make 
the actual test of his teachings, “If any man willeth (is willing) 
to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God” 
(John 7: 17). No honest man ever put Christ to this test in 
absolute fidelity, who has not proved that he is the guide to the 
lost into the pathway of light and peace. 


ENLISTING OURSELVES 3 


Prayer: God of light and life, shine into my heart to give me 
the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ.” 


Second Day: If Out of Christ, We Are Sin-Sick 


Salvation is health. Sin is disease. Disease is not simply a 
physical condition. It is dis-ease, which is fundamentally an 
indication of spiritual unrest, a stinging conscience, a sense of 
estrangement from God because of known disobedience in self-will. 
The words whole and heal and holy and health and wholesome are 
all the same word. They include the whole man through and 
through. Some of these words seem to suggest experiences that 
are out of our reach, yet others indicate qualities which we deem 
absolutely necessary to our daily life at its best. They all mean 
the same thing. We talk of a man of integrity as one who is 
meeting the just expectations of his neighbors in daily living. 
But the man of integrity is the integer, the unbroken, the untouched 
character, one which is not fractional. The man of integrity is the 
wholesome man. In the fullest development of his being he is a 
whole man. Most people that we know are fractional, not integral. 
Let us be frank to say that the whole man is on his way to holiness, 
as a man of God, a godly man. 

The fact of sin must be studied in the light of this fundamental 
truth. Men have been slow to admit the need of a physician who 
could heal their sin. It was so in Christ’s time. To such he said: 
“They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” 
(Matt. 9: 12). They were criticizing him because he was going 
among the “publicans and sinners,” the people who admitted that 
they needed him. Self-righteous Pharisees could not understand 
his eager desire to save those people. Without a spark of redeeming 
love in their hearts, they drew away from such. Hence Jesus gave 
them to understand that since they put themselves outside of those 
who needed him, he was not seeking to force his salvation upon 
them. He knew how desperately they needed him; but they did 
not seem even to realize it in their spirit of self-sufficiency. It is 
so today. Many will not admit that their sinful lives need cleansing 
and healing. Self-will is as fatal as any overt sin which the law 
condemns, Indifference is as fatal as disobedience. The only 


4 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


solution to man’s problem is a right relation to God through Jesus 
Christ. All life takes on meaning because of personal relation- 
ships, whether between men and men, or between men and God. 
Until we are in right relation to God and men, there is sin in our 
lives, and we know it. God give us courage to acknowledge it 
fully and frankly. 

Note the difference between sin and guilt. Sin is the general 
condition. Guilt marks the crime of violating wilfully some par- 
ticular law, either a law of God or man. Many who are not 
directly guilty of disobedience must suffer because of the sin of 
others, as in the case of the wife and children of a drunkard. 
Man’s first problem is that of sin, not that of guilt. Sin has been 
persisting through the years, deepening and deadening as the years 
pass. Into this world of sin all are born. Hence all need a 
physician to heal their sin-sick natures. The moral stagnation and 
spiritual death of millions must be the more keenly realized because 
they do not know how helpless they are apart from God’s appointed 
Saviour, who has paid the ransom for their guilt, and is ready 
to forgive their sins, the moment they will turn to him in penitence 
and faith. Thousands have proved that he is the divine physician 
able to cleanse the human heart. Have you proved it? If not, 
why not? He speaks to each needy soul today, as of old, “Wilt 
thou be made whole?” (John 5: 6). To all who seek this blessing, 
he is eager to bestow even the very fullness of the Holy Spirit 
of the living God. 


PRAYER: Divine Physician, give me a vivid appreciation of my 
sin, and my need of Thee to heal and keep, that I may indeed be 
made whole. 


Third Day: If Out of Christ, We Are Slaves to Sin 


What havoc sin hath wrought! To be lost and sin-sick is not 
all. Sin is a hard and relentless master. The most pitiful object 
in this world is a man who is a slave to sin, betraying his helpless- 
ness, as his struggle grows weaker and his will becomes flabby, 
while the strength of his character disappears. Moreover this 
slavery to sin is quite as much a fact in many lives that do not 
betray it in those outward acts which are commonly condemned by 


ENLISTING OURSELVES 5 


conscientious people. One may have gold enough to fill his grave, 
or be a social leader of national fame, or shine with the intellectual 
brilliance of Shakespeare, and yet be a veritable slave to sin, to 
which he has surrendered in self-will. And he knows it, though 
he be unwilling to admit his helplessness to realize spiritual health, 
purity of heart, righteousness of character in the sight of God. 
John touches the explanation of the condemnation of all such in 
his gospel, 3: 18-20, “He that believeth not is condemned already, 
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son 
of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the 
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” 

It is of supreme importance that we realize just what occurs as 
men go on in sin. We have a common expression which is un- 
fortunate. We talk of “breaking the law of God,’ whereas no man 
can break God’s law, for God himself is in his law. What happens 
when we disobey his law is that we break our characters at the 
point of our disobedience. We speak of a man with broken health. 
The statement is accurate. He did not break God’s law of health; 
but when he disobeyed that law, he broke his health. Just so we 
cannot break God’s law of purity; but when we disobey it, we break 
our purity. Could we but realize this tremendous truth adequately, 
surely it would have a restraining effect upon our thought and 
decision in the face of many a temptation. 

One of our poets has pictured one who was gifted in many ways, 
but who went on in sin, until 


“As some ill-guided bark, well built and tall, 
Which angry tides cast out on desert shore, 

And then, retiring, left it there to rot 

And molder in the winds and rains of heaven, 

So he, cut from the sympathies of life, 

And cast ashore from pleasure’s boisterous surge, 

A wandering, weary, worn and wretched thing, 

A scorched and desolate and blasted soul, 

A gloomy wilderness of dying thought, 

Repined and groaned and withered from the earth,” 


6 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


“The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6: 23). When disease only 
reaches the body, after a healed soul is set free, release soon comes 
into “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8: 21). 
But when the disease of sin claims both eee! and spirit, there is 
hopeless slavery. 


Prayer: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving- 
kindness. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse 
me from my sin.” 


Fourth Day: If Out of Christ, We Have Forfeited Our 
Sonship 


A strategic point of view from which to study man’s need of 
God’s forgiving love is the 15th chapter of Luke’s gospel. Two 
facts stand out in the story of the prodigal son, who is trying to 
satisfy his hungry heart with the husks of the world: First, that 
man, as a child of God, has forfeited his sonship by his sin of self- 
will and consequent disobedience. There is a sense in which we 
are created children of God. Paul emphasizes this in his sermon 
at Athens (Acts 17: 28): “For in him we live, and move, and have 
our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are 
also his offspring.’ But the prodigal who had gone off in a way 
of his own choosing, turning his back upon his father’s love, had no 
claim upon that father which he could press as a right. He could 
only confess his utter unworthiness and plead for merciful forgive- 
ness. The second outstanding fact is the unchanging love of that 
faithful father, who was ready to forgive the penitent boy and 
restore him to full sonship again. 

The most revolutionary truth Christ taught to man was that 
regarding the Fatherhood of God. In Christ’s time no Jew was 
allowed to take the name of Jehovah on his lips. Children were 
taught another name to use instead. When Christ began to talk 
familiarly and lovingly about God as his Father, as in John 6: 
32-47, the astonishment of his disciples was great. When he taught 
them to pray “Our Father” (Matt. 6: 9, seq.) they little dreamed 
how potent those two words would be in the uplifting of the race. 
They first thought of God as Christ’s Father. That was a mo- 
mentous day when Peter declared: “Thou art the Christ, the Son 


ENLISTING OURSELVES 7 


of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). They could realize the Father- 
hood of God for Christ, because they saw the sonship of God in 
Christ. And then he led them to see how the Father wanted 
them to come back into the sonship. That story of the forgiven 
prodigal son was a marvelous picture to them, as it should be to 
all of us. Could such a Father’s love be theirs? Andours? How 
well they knew what the wayward son thought of his miserable 
husks! How their desires ran along the line of his purpose to 
arise and go to his father! 

As Christ gave to them a vision of the forbearing, forgiving, 
redeeming love of God our Father in the heavenlies, a new hope, a 
new longing, a new faith, a new joy bathed their hungry souls with 
a strange, new sense of unspeakable gratitude toward God, which 
was the beginning of a responsive love for God, because he had 
thus first loved them (I John 3: 1-3, and 4: 7-10). How this 
blessed truth should bring us to realize our miserable condition 
apart from God! So long as we are out of Christ, we prove that 
we have not repented of our self-will, betrayed in all sorts of sin, 
often the more subtle kind not so easily confessed because we 
imagine that it is not so heinous in the sight of men; and the more 
overt kind, which all men condemn and which we are constrained 
to confess more readily for that reason, though it may not be as 
heinous in God’s sight as our self-righteousness, which is only a 
“soiled garment” (Isa. 64: 6). The only right thing for us to do, 
_in honest penitence for our sin, and in eager faith in Christ, as he 
opens to us the way of pardon and restoration, is to say with that 
prodigal of long ago, “I will arise and go to my Father!” 


PRAYER: I come in Christ, as Thy wayward child, O God, my 
Father. Quicken in me a sense of my great need of Thee. Give 
me a clear vision of Thy forgiving love, and constrain me to seek 
Thy presence forevermore, 


Fifth Day: Though Saved, We Still Are Tempted and 
Tried 
Even when the lost has found a guide, and the sin-sick has ac- 
cepted a physician, and the slave has rejoiced in a redeemer, and 
the forgiven son is again in the Father’s house, still the need of 


g 


8 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


man continues. He has three persistent foes—the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. The “old man” does not give way readily to the 
“new man in Christ.” The regenerating power of God has im- 
planted a new life principle in the soul, but the whole life is trans- 
formed slowly, as a rule, into the likeness of Christ. Sometimes 
the Christian makes a complete surrender of self to Christ. Such 
an one may experience a constant victory, for God has declared his 
abounding grace to be sufficient for all of us (II Cor. 12:9). 

The enemy persists in his attacks upon the believer, and those 
attacks increase in fury by just so much as the believer wins his 
victory in Christ. The Master said to his disciples (John 16: 33): 
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I 
have overcome the world.” Paul wrote to the Galatians (5: 16-24) 
declaring that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
against the flesh,” and urged them to “walk by the Spirit,” so that 
they would not “fulfil the lust of the flesh.” In the broadest sense 
temptation is testing. Resistant forces are always to be reckoned 
with. If men did not need to struggle in order to obtain bread, the 
race would quickly degenerate, and character would be lost in a 
lazy animal. Struggle is the blessed condition of strength. 
Temptation is the test of fidelity. Dirt must be washed away, if 
we would be clean. Error must be defeated, if truth shall win. 
Sin must be conquered, if righteousness shall crown the life. 

The Scriptures abound with the truth that man may ever find in 
God that divine help that will enable him to conquer every tempta- 
tion and grow into an increasing fellowship with Christ, knowing 
the joy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let the hesitant soul 
who wonders whether there is any way of victory out of weakness 
into strength, be reassured by this truth. But let him also empha- 
size the fact that our faith in God’s promised grace is necessary, 
for God cannot give regardless of our eager readiness to receive 
(I John 5: 4). Paul urges the Corinthians (II Cor. 2: 14) to be 
thankful “unto God who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.” 
Moreover we read in Rev. 12: 11, that “they overcame him because 
of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testi- 


mony, and they loved not their life even unto death.” Here we | 


have briefly given us the explanation of victory over temptation 


available for us by the grace of God. Note “the word of their | 


eS a 


ENLISTING OURSELVES 9 


testimony,” for we are to dwell at length on the significance of that 
in this book. 

A young girl in her teens was listening at the table to a conversa- 
tion on the subject of the victorious life. Quietly she said: 
“Father, I am living the victorious life.” Surprised, her father 
asked: “And what do you do when your temptation comes?” “Oh, 
_ that is very simple,” she said, “for Jesus always lives in my heart, 
and when the devil comes with his temptation, I just say: ‘Dear 
Lord, will you please go to the door?’ Then just as soon as the 
devil sees who is at the door, he says: ‘Oh, excuse me, I am at the 
wrong place.’ Then I have no more trouble for awhile.” Could 
anyone outgrow the simplicity and efficacy of that sort of “abiding” 
life? It is possible for all. 


PRAYER: O Christ, Thou hast won this victory for me. Grant 
that I may rest by faith in Thy victory, until I know what Paul 
knew when he said: “I live, yet not I; but Christ liveth in me.” 


Sixth Day: Since Christ Has Saved Us, We Owe All to 

Him 

There is an old hymn whose refrain contains a great truth in a 
single line—“Jesus paid it all: all to him I owe.” Paul urges 
the easy-going Corinthians (I Cor. 6: 19, 20) to realize that “Ye 
are not your own, for ye are bought with a price’; “therefore,” he 
says, “glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 
This is the constraint upon us which should draw out our highest 
allegiance to our Redeemer. In the slave market in Cairo a 
swarthy Egyptian was on the block. An Englishman began to 
bid for him. The Egyptian knew it was against the British law 
for an Englishman to own slaves, and a strong feeling of resent- 
ment sprang up in his breast against his would-be master. The 
Englishman bought him and disappeared. The slave waited and 
wondered. After a time, his new master returned and handed 
him a piece of paper, with the words, “This is your emancipation. 
[ love to see men free.” Then giving him some money, he said: 
“Now go and be a man.” The long-time slave, as he realized what 
had occurred, experienced a complete revulsion of feeling toward 


10 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


his redeemer, and a great inexpressible gratitude filled his face with 
a new love and a sudden, strong sense of allegiance, as he cried: 
“Oh, do you mean that I am now free to do whatever I desire to 
do?” “Yes, that is what I mean,” was the reply. “Well, there is 
just one thing I want to do. I want to serve you all the rest of my 
life!” Ah, yes. That was his highest liberty. And just that 
spirit must have place in the heart of every true Christian who 
appreciates something of what Christ has done for us. 

We have recently witnessed a noble spirit of enlistment revealed 
by millions of men in different parts of the world. Several motives 
have had place in connection with this experience. Some have 
been promoted by the worthy motive of defending all that is dear 
to them, their homes, their loved ones, as well as their own lives. 
Some have been challenged by their love of country, revealing a 
splendid patriotism in their readiness to defend their native or 
adopted land against threatened invasion or serious loss. Some 


———— ee 


have caught a still higher vision, and have seen the welfare of all | 


humanity at stake, and have given themselves eagerly to the great 
cause of human liberty, ready to die, with a smile if need be, for 


that worthy cause. In this experience we have a striking example | 


of that eager spirit of enlistment which should mark the attitude of 
every intelligent and loyal Christian. The Cause of Christ is the 
noblest known to men. Every true believer is a citizen in the 
kingdom of God. The same motives that quicken the spirit of 
patriotism, as a citizen of one’s earthly country, must quicken also 


a like spirit of allegiance to the greater cause of the kingdom of — 


God, for as his children “our citizenship is in the heavenlies.” 


Surely no thoughtful, honest person can think through the — 
considerations presented in this Study, without realizing that the — 
only hope of the individual and of the race is Jesus Christ. He — 
stands before each one who has not yet accepted him, saying: 


“Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice 


and open the door, I will come in to him” (Rev. 3:20). Moreover, — 


he says: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 
6: 37). Put away hesitation. Make the decision now, and say to 
him, “Just as J am, O Lamb of God, I come.” 


PraYER: Help me, O Christ, to follow my decision to take Thee 


7 


a ee 


ENLISTING OURSELVES II 


for my Savicur, with the prayer of Saul of Tarsus, “Lord, what 
wilt Thou have me to do?” 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


This Study demands an earnest examination of one’s self. The 
only way to realize any man’s need is to realize my own. The 
purpose of the Study is to make clear the need and the way for 
every living soul to accept Christ and enlist under his banner, who 
“is our only Saviour and who seeks to be our only Lord and Master. 
One of the highest motives for that enlistment is the desire to be 
used of God in winning others to Christ, that they may share with 
us the blessings of his salvation and the privileges of his service. 
Thus this first Study serves in a special way as an introduction to 
all that follows. 

1. How would you describe a lost soul? What did the young 
lawyer need to realize? What is Paul’s philosophy of the lost 
condition of men? What does Christ bring to the lost? Give 
instances of the universal need of humanity for such a guide to 
God as Christ proves to be. 

2. What words in this reading involve the nature of things in 
human life? How would you distinguish between sin and guilt? 
Why are most people so slow to admit their helplessness because 
of sin, and their need of a divine Saviour? Do you realize and 
admit your own need of Christ? 

3. What would you say constitutes slavery to sin? Why is the 
case of a gifted man all the more pitiful, if a slave to sin, without 
Christ? What is the correct statement to make about breaking 
God’s law? How far does sin work death? 

4. What is Christ’s purpose in teaching the parable of Luke 15? 
How did Christ’s followers come to the appreciation of the Father- 
hood of God? Are you ready to make the decision of the wayward 
son? 

5. How much is involved in the largest application of the term 
“temptation”? Why is a Christian not free from temptations and 
trials and struggles against resistant forces? What do the Scrip- 
tures teach about God’s provision whereby we have the victory 
over all trials? Tell the story of the girl who lived the victorious 
life. Have you tried her method? 


12 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


6. Why do we owe everything to Christ? Tell the story of the 
Egyptian slave. What lesson should we learn from instances of 
modern patriotism? Have you taken Christ as your Lord and 
Saviour? If not, why not? 


Prayer: Help me, O Christ, to realize fully my need of Thee, and 
my helplessness without Thee. Then give me grace to take Thee for 
salvation and for service, ever resting in Thee by faith for victory 
in every experience of life. 





STUDY II 
WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 
First Day: Every One Is Serving—Who Is the Master? 


The apostle Paul must have startled the Roman Christians to 
whom he was writing, when he asked them this striking question: 
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, 
his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or 
of obedience unto righteousness?” (Rom. 6: 16.) They must have 
been startled because it is evident from that statement of Paul that 
every one of us is a servant of one of these masters. The question 
is as to who or what is the master. Each one of us is yielding his 
or her life either to the mastery of sin or to the mastery of Christ. 
It is not a question as to what we have professed to be doing, but 
it is a question as to what is occurring in the daily life. 

Some people have a strange idea to the effect that a surrendered 
life is one in which we forfeit our liberty and our individuality. 
By no means! Every one is living the surrendered life, yielding 
either to the service of sin, or yielding to the obedience of Christ. 
The vital question is: To which of these are you yielding, to which 
are you giving your desires, to which are you surrendering your 
will? All true liberty is under law. Otherwise it becomes license. 
Which law is controlling your life? Is it the law of sin and death? 
Or is it the law of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from 
the law of sin and death? (Rom. 8: 2.) A man may decide that he 
will not make his will. By that very decision he makes his will, 
for he lives under a law of the State which gives him the liberty 
to make his will as he may prefer. But if he refuse to exercise 
his liberty under the law, the same law decides what shall become 
of his property. Exactly so some people imagine they can go on 
without making a decision as to their relation to Jesus Christ. By 
that very choice they have made their decision about Christ as their 
Saviour, or as their Master in daily service. They have yielded 


3 


14  ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


their lives to sin, rather than to Christ. And in so doing they 
have refused to exercise their highest freedom. 

Let it be clearly realized that every person’s temptation is exactly 
like the temptation of Jesus, “Cast thyself down!” (Matt. 4: 6.) 
That is always the temptation that you face—“Cast thyself down !” 
For no one ever went down who did not first decide to do so. 
Whatever excuses you may have made to your accusing conscience, 
whatever resolve that it would be just for that once, when you 
went down it was because you decided to go down, to cast yourself 
down. You yielded to the slavery of sin at that moment, and to the 
obedience which is unto death. And you knew it. How evident 
it is, in the very nature of things, that we are saved by Jesus Christ 
in order that we shall evermore yield our lives to him in the 
obedience of righteousness unto life eternal. And this is not 
primarily to the end that we should do his will for his sake; but 
it is because only thus can we enter into the high possibilities that 
come with the blessings of obedience to his holy will. It is his 
glory to will for our good. Hence when we seek to glorify him, we 
are always receiving the best blessing for ourselves. 


Prayer: Thy law, O God, reveals its blessings to all who obey, 
and makes tt perfectly clear that when we disobey we muss the 
blessing. Help me, therefore, to yield myself gladly, fully, to serve 
Thee in my body and spirit in fullest loyalty. 


Second Day: The Problem of Self-Denial 


Whenever we think of self-denial, we must always ask ourselves 
this supremely important question, Which self? For there are two 
selves, the lower self of the appetites and desires on the level of the 
things of the flesh, and the higher self of the aspirations in the 
noble realm of moral and spiritual values. These are the two 
selves which Paul has in mind, when he writes in Rom. 8: 5-14, 
“They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but 
they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” Read the 
entire passage in which the apostle traces these two tendencies in 
our human experience. It is most helpful to every honest life that 
has caught a vision of what is truly worth while in the realm of 
human possibilities, 


WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 15 


Ordinarily when the subject of self-denial is mentioned, most 
people think at once of the hardships involved in denying the lower 
self. It is not usual for most Christians to think of the poverty 
of spirit which follows the indulgence of the lower self along the 
lines of the appetites and the things of the flesh, or even the realm 
of the intellect, in all of which there may be no thought given to 
the needs of the nobler self in the realm of the spirit. Thus 
thousands are satisfying the lower self and starving their higher 
natures. That is to say, while indulging the lower self there is 
always the denial of the spirit. We say “Yes” to the lower self, 
and forget that in so doing we are saying “No” to the longings of 
the spirit. On the other hand, when we say “No” faithfully to the 
desires of the lower self, we are releasing the soul from the slavery 
of self, indulging the aspirations that reach up to God and enriching 
our natures in the fellowship of Christ. 

Now mark the vital fact that when we thus deny the lower 
self and satisfy the longings of the higher, we have no thought of 
hardship because we must forego the pleasures of the flesh, which 
are the only pleasures that some people know. A newspaper re- 
porter was interviewing a bishop in the city of New York, who was 
there for a time on a special errand. The reporter was in a hurry, 
for he was planning to play the races that afternoon at Sheepshead 
Bay. The fine personality of the bishop impressed him. Here was 
a type of man with which he was not familiar. Finally he asked: 
“Bishop, do you ever play the races?” The bishop kindly replied 
that he never had that experience. Somewhat surprised, the 
reporter said: “But you surely attend the races occasionally.” 
When assured that the bishop had no time for this pastime, he 
confidently said: “But you surely go to the theater.” When the 
bishop said he had no time for theater-going, the reporter was 
manifestly astonished, and sincerely exclaimed: “But, bishop, what 
in the world do you do?” Think of the poverty of manhood which 
that young man revealed! He would have deemed life not worth 
living if he had been compelled to deny himself all these pleasures. 
But imagine what impoverishing of his nobler self the bishop would 
have experienced if he had gone down from his level where he was 
realizing the high calling of God for him in Christ Jesus, in the 
realm of moral and spiritual and eternal values. Further comment 


16 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


is unnecessary. To which of these two classes of people do you 
belong? Toward which attitude of life are you growing as the 
years pass? From which of these two classes are you moving into 
the other? Everyone is moving in one of these directions. 


Prayer: O Christ, who didst empty Thyself and go to the cross 
for my salvation, help me to realize Thy joy beyond Thy cross, 
when Thou didst ascend to the throne of God. 


Third Day: Service and Power 


Another consideration of vital importance is connected with these 
experiences of service and self-denial. That is the fact that only 
service and self-denial can develop power in any sphere. Every 
one has a desire for some kind of power. We recognize power as 
essential to success. We also know that there are various kinds of 
power and various kinds of success. There are two realms of 
power: one is the realm of having, the other is the realm of being. 
There is power that goes with knowledge, keen thinking, foresight 
and insight, intelligent grasp of truth and the ability to apply it. 
This power is in the realm of being, though it reaches to the realm 
of having. Then there is power that goes with money, securing 
various things which are not in the realm of being. Money can 
never buy anything in the realm of being. Other conditions must 
be met in order to success in building character, which is the 
distinctive business in the realm of being. Note that in the 
Beatitudes (Matt. 5: 1-12) Christ teaches that the Blessed Life is 
never in the realm of having, but always in the realm of being. 

It has been said that the world has not yet seen the man who has 
so fully given himself to God that God could trust him with very 
much of divine power. What sincere Christian can ponder that 
thought without an instant prayer in his heart? For just to the 
extent that a man truly, unreservedly, gives his life to God, it is 
absolutely certain that God will give his power to that man. The 
law involved in this statement is written in every realm of power. 
God says to the boatman: “Obey my law of the wind, and serve me 
faithfully by setting your sails according to my law, and you may 
go anywhere you wish, for I will give you all the power of the 
wind.” It is his universal law. “The righteous... shall hold 


WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 17 


on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and 
stronger” (Job 17:9). There was Marconi asking himself how he 
could discover the way to obey God’s law more perfectly in the 
realm of electricity, for he knew that if he should yield himself 
more completely in obedience to that law some new power of elec- 
tricity would be his reward. So he toiled on day after day in 
the spirit of a servant who was eager to obey more perfectly the 
law, under which he might find larger freedom, until—one day, 
lo! A vision! Wireless telegraphy and a richer world! 

It is supremely true of the realm of spiritual power. It is the 
very thought of our Lord in Acts 1: 8, where the conditions to 
be met are given in connection with the promise of power. He 
ever says to each believer: “By just so much as you give your life 
unreservedly to me, I will make you a channel of my power.” It 
is the final explanation of men like Moses and Paul and Luther and 
Judson and Moody. And let us not doubt that God is at this 
moment using every one of us as much as we have been willing to 
yield ourselves unreservedly to him at every point of our desires. 
By just so much as God is not using us now, it is because self, in 
some form, is on the throne instead of Christ. It was this perfect 
obedience, as described by Paul in Phil. 2: 8, that explains that 
other fact recorded by Matthew (28: 18), that Christ said to 
his disciples: “All power is given unto me.” The Church needs 
nothing so much as this baptism of power; but in order to receive 
it there must be in the lives of its members this spirit of willingness 
to serve in perfect obedience to God’s commands. 


PRAYER: “Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, 
By the power of grace divine. 
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, 
And my will be lost in Thine.” 


Fourth Day: God’s First Plan for Our Service 


Toward the end of his earthly ministry our Lord began to speak 
to his disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit to the leader- 
ship of the Church. In John 15: 26, 27, he said: “He shall bear 
witness of me.” Then he added to the disciples: “And ye also shall 
bear witness.” In the Great Commission in Matt. 28: 18-20, he said 


18 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


to them: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Also 
in the classic passage in Acts 1: 1-8, frequently mentioned already 
in these pages, he told them to wait in Jerusalem for the promise 
of the Father, promised them power when the Holy Spirit had come 
upon them, saying: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusa- 
lem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part 
of the earth.” Thus it is evident that it has been the hope and 
purpose of our Lord that his Church should be a witnessing Church. 


This is God’s first plan for us in Christian service. We are to be 


his witnesses in every part of our lives, but we are specially to be 
faithful in striving to “make a disciple” of every person who is out 
of Christ. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world” (John 9: 5): 
and also said to his disciples: “Ye are the light of the world” (Matt. 
5: 14), evidently meaning to teach us that henceforth we are to 
live Christ and give Christ to all mankind. Paul urges that we 
are to be living epistles, “known and read of all men” (II Cor. 3: 
2). The consistent life authenticates the faithful testimony. Every 
man who receives Christ becomes a trustee to share Christ with 
every other man. In the business world there is a keen sense of 
honor in connection with a trusteeship. When will the Christian 
have the same sense of honor in connection with this trust, for 
which he must one day give an account to God? 

Note Paul’s earnest plea touching this obligation in Rom. Io: 
8-17, as he emphasizes the fact that the only way of salvation is by 
faith in Jesus Christ, and that “faith cometh by hearing, and hear- 
ing by the word of God.” One cannot doubt that one reason why 
God planned to save the world by witnessing and interceding be- 
lievers is for the sake of the believers. It is impossible for a 
Christian to make much progress in a Christ-like life, who is 
entirely negligent of this Christian service. It would be impossible 
to go very far in the full fellowship of Christ, if one should be 
indifferent to this form of service, which Christ puts first in his 
program for us. Instances might be multiplied to show that when 
Christians began to win others to Christ, their own lives immedi- 
ately became enlarged and enriched in their fellowship of service 
with the Master. : 


PRAYER: O Master, help me to put first things first. Burden me 





Ee 


— 


) 
| 


WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 19 


with a sense of my responsibility for lost people, and help me to be 
faithful to my trust. 


Fifth Day: The Crime of Unconcern 


Notwithstanding the plain teachings of the New Testament re- 
garding the divine will for Christians, the fact must be confessed 
that the Church is not a witnessing church in anything like what 
our Lord intended and desires. Think of the significant fact that 
the Protestant Church of America has averaged only seven per 
cent per annum in its additions to the membership on confession of 
faith. And we are now in the twentieth century of the so-called 
Christian era. That means that for every one hundred leaders and 
members of the Church there are only seven new members won to 
the Church in a whole year! But that must also mean that 
hundreds of members whose names are on church rolls go on for 
weeks and months and years without doing a solitary thing to try 
_ to win anyone to Christ. It is this indifference that explains the 
fruitlessness of so many professing Christians, not simply evident 
in their failure to bring any sheaves into the garner, but also in 
the fact that they are quite complacent in their lethargy. Should 
we not call it the crime of unconcern? But are we at all really 
concerned about our own failure? 

Some years ago a well-known Christian was stopped on the street 
by a friend, with the question, “Mr. R , how long have we 
known each other?” After a moment’s thought he replied: “I 
should think about fifteen years.” “You claim to be a Christian, I 
believe.’ “Why, yes, Ido.” Then his friend asked “Do you really 
believe that I must accept Christ as my Saviour, if I am to be 
saved?” “Yes, I do believe that.” Then the still more significant 
question, “Do you care whether I am saved or not?” “Why, 
certainly I do.” “Well,” said the friend, “I don’t want to hurt 
your feelings; but I do not believe it. As you say, we have been 
good friends for fifteen years; yet in all these years you never once 
mentioned Jesus Christ to me. You are a leading Christian busi- 
ness man in this city, and if you had ever told me that Christ was 
precious to you, and that he had a right to my life, and that I 
needed him as my Saviour, I would have listened to you with 
respect. But you never did it. We have talked about everything 





20 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


else under heaven; but never once have you mentioned Christ to 
me. Ofcourse, when I ask you if you care whether I am saved, or 
not, you say you do; but don’t you see that if you had really cared 
one least little bit, you would have said something to me about it in 
fifteen years?” 

With shame and startled surprise, as he faced the fact of his 
actual unconcern, however much he might have professed to care, 
the Christian confessed that he had often dodged and shirked 
opportunities that God had put right in his way to speak for Christ. 
But that incident marked the beginning of a great change in his 
life, for thereafter he became a great winner of souls. Does not 
that incident reveal to us our actual failure in a similar way? 
Think of Christian work in China for a moment. Suppose a new 
Christian convert in China never said or did a single thing to try 
to win any of his neighbors to Christ. Would we not wonder 
whether he was truly converted, or not? But why should we 
expect that service from a Chinese Christian, just out of pagan 
darkness, when we fail in it at home? Is it also fair to question 
whether we are truly converted? The apostle James very frankly 
said: “Faith without works is dead” (2: 14-18). Christ looks for 
results in our lives (John 15: 1-8), and he has a right to expect 
them, in view of all he has done for us. 


PRAYER: Forgive my lack of sympathy, O Christ, with Thy re- 
deeming love for lost men, and quicken in me a genuine burden for 
their eternal salvation, until I shall be ready to speak as Thou dost 
open the way. 


Sixth Day: The Constraint of Christ’s Love 


The outstanding example of a Christian whose life of service was 
marked by a quenchless ardor for the lost, to save whom Christ 
died, is the apostle Paul. How stirring are his words in II Cor. 
5: 14-20, where he declares: “The love of Christ constraineth us; 
because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 
and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth 
live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them (for their 
sakes) and rose again.” “God who reconciled us to himself through 
Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. ... We 


o = ete 


WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 21 


are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were 
entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye recon- 
ciled to God.” 

How the spirit of the apostle throbs with the love of Christ for 
a lost world! And this spirit has been manifest in every life that 
has felt the constraining love of Christ. Hear the following plea 
from the Rev. Charles Inwood: “The sobbing of a thousand million 
of poor heathen sounds in my ear and moves my heart; and I try to 
measure, as God helps me, something of their darkness, something 
of their blank misery, something of their despair. Oh, think of 
these needs. I say again they are ocean depths; and, beloved, in 
my Master’s name, I want you to measure them, I want you to think 
earnestly about them, I want you to look at them until they appall 
you, until you cannot sleep.” John Wesley declared: “I look upon 
the world as my parish; thus far, I mean, that in whatever part of 
it I am, I judge it my bounden duty to declare unto all that are 
willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation.” It was said of him 
that “He was at it and always at it.” Like Wesley, he who tastes 
the joy of winning one soul to Christ will seek another, and still 
another, while any remain who are not saved. 

Charles G. Finney is one of the most prominent Americans whose 
life revealed this same spirit. It is pathetic to know that when he 
first became concerned about his soul’s welfare, he was greatly 
hindered by the indifference and inconsistencies of professing 
Christians. “How can Christianity be worth while,’ he thought, 
“if this is its product?” But God met his need, and when he became 
a Christian it was no half-way sort; and no one ever doubted God’s 
power to save a man through and through, when once he came to 
know Finney’s unquenchable zeal for the lost. Oh, that we might 
never forget that each day our lives are either hindering or help- 
ing the people we meet to live close to Jesus Christ. Perhaps the 
name of Dwight L. Moody has also been in our thought as such a 
man of God, whose burden for souls that were out of Christ was so 
heavy that people who touched his life could not but feel his great 
concern. His burden seemed heavier than that of others, and he 
was toiling through many years as a witnessing Christian, making 
disciples of thousands, and inspiring many to new visions of God’s 
call to lives of service. One of the conspicuous instances of such 


22 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


personal inspiration is that of Dr. Grenfell, who has been so — 


mightily used of God in Labrador. 


Prayer: Forbid, O Christ, that I should ever be indifferent to 
the thought that some may never know Thee because I have been 





unfaithful in Thy service. Let Thy constraining love dominate my — 
life until I shall desire nothing so much as to be used of Thee for — 


the saving of the lost. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


The Gospel cannot find its full expression until all men enjoy 
“the glorious liberty of the children of God.” The distinctive mark 


of this spirit is a new concern for individual men. This concern © 


has been the explanation of every forward movement in the 
Protestant world since the Reformation. We sometimes hear of 
the next revival in the Church. It will only come as the others 
came. 

1. What is the truth touching the service that every life is 
rendering? To whom, or to what, are you yielding your own life? 


How must we define true liberty? What was Christ’s temptation, — 


which is also ours? What follows when one thinks he can refuse 
to decide about Christ? 

2. When we think of self-denial, what question must we ask? 
Define these two “selves.” When are we experiencing self-denial 
in each case? Tell the story of the bishop and the reporter. 

3. Why does everyone desire power? What are the two 


realms of power? What is the condition of having the power — 


of God in our lives? Illustrate the law which obtains in this 
matter. Mention some words of Christ which point to his obedi- 
ence and to his power. 

4. Mention the Scripture that indicates the will of God, as 
Christ made it plain, for the Church’s life of service. What is true 
in the business world when men recognize a trust? Does this same 


sense of honor obtain in the life of the average Christian? Give — 


a special reason why God planned to have believers do this work. 


5. What is the record of the Protestant Church as to additions © 


on confession of faith? What must this mean as regards most 
members of the churches? Tell the story of the Christian whose 


Se ee eee eee 


NS ee a a 


WE ARE SAVED TO SERVE 23 


friend questioned his statement that he cared whether or not the 
friend was saved. What would we think of a Christian convert in 
China who never spoke to anyone about his faith in Christ? Should 
we think the same about ourselves? 

6. Where do we find Paul’s great statement concerning the con- 
straining love of Christ? What is the special thought in the state- 
ment of Charles Inwood? What hindered Charles G. Finney when 
he became concerned about his spiritual welfare? What did men 
believe about Moody as the distinctive fact in his life? Name one 
Christian who was inspired by Moody to his great life-work. 


Prayer: Help me, O Christ, to conquer any unconcern for a lost 
world thai puts me out of sympathy with Thy supreme service for 
mankind. 


STUDY III 
REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 


First Day: God’s Valuation of an Immortal Soul 


The value of a lost soul makes its shipwreck so terrible. The 
question of Christ mentioned in the first day of our first Study, 
recorded in Mark 8: 36, 37, indicates God’s measure of that value. 
The whole world of material riches sinks down below the spiritual 
worth of one human life: Hence we can the better appreciate the 
joy of heaven, which Christ describes in Luke 15, whenever a soul 
is saved. If only indifferent Christians could realize this supreme 
value of each human life in God’s sight, what a difference it would 
make in the thought and activity of the Church! 

Our Lord once told those who were listening to him that a wise 
man would always sit down and count the cost before undertaking 
an important enterprise (Luke 14: 28-32). Must we not, therefore, 
realize how Christ himself counted the cost when he faced the task 
of leaving his throne of glory and coming down to live his life 
against misunderstandings and persecutions, and dying the death 
of the cross? Yes, he counted the full cost of it all, and then he 
came. To the two disciples going to Emmaus he said (Luke 24: 
26), “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter 
into his glory?” We must also realize that such eager giving of 
himself is but a part of the love of God to which Christ referred in 
John 3: 16, so familiar and yet so profound that no man can 
measure its meaning. Paul declares to the Romans (5: 8) that 
“God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us.” 

It is the great theme of the New Testament. In I John 4: 10, 
the beloved disciple declares: “Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation 
for our sins.” This is realizing the redeeming love of God. But 
Paul and John knew it only because they had been saved by the 


24 


REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 25 


power of that love from the old life of sin and self. No man can 
quicken in his hearers an appreciation of that love, except as he 
reveals the power of a personal testimony to the fact that God 
had redeemed him by grace divine. 

A dear friend of the writer was an ordinary church member for 
years, and was useful in service as the average Christian is. But 
one day he discovered that he had never experienced the power of 
God's grace in his life. He developed a great longing for this 
deeper experience of God’s power to give a blessed victory to 
believers. He was led from point to point until the light flooded 
his whole being. Today when he rises to speak all who hear and 
know him realize that he is a very different Christian from what he 
once was. God is using him marvelously to help others to know 
the victorious life. Could you be satisfied with less? 


PRAYER: Touch my inmost life with the sense of all Thou hast 
done for me, O Christ, so that I may realize Thy wondrous love 
in such a way that I may be enabled to help others to realize its 
redeeming power. 


Second Day: God’s Compassion for Men 


The most important truth for men to know is that God is con- 
cerned about us. Christ’s revelation of the Father’s love breathes 
the teaching continually that God cares for us individually, as in 
Matt. 6: 25-33. his divine concern necessarily follows in view 
of the value which God places upon every human life. The only 
philosophy of life that will ever satisfy a thinking man must teach 
that God is vitally participating in every experience of men, our 
joys, our sufferings, our struggles, seeking ever to deliver and 
purify and strengthen us, just as an earthly father enters into the 
experiences and the discipline of his children. Two great truths 
have been specially emphasized in our generation about God: his 
Fatherhood and his immanency. Modern science has stressed the 
latter. Both demand that we shall realize that the only truly 
scientific appreciation of these truths must see that God is in every 
life and every part of that life. Instead of trying to explain away 
God, the scientific emphasis of the presence of an immanent Father 


2  ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


must insist upon his immediate and constant activity in everything 
all the time. 

There are two very striking questions to be found on the very 
first pages of the Bible. They are (Gen. 3:9), “Where art thou?” 
and (Gen. 4: 9), “Where is thy brother?” They stress the fact 
that the Christian Scriptures are the only sacred writings of man- 
kind which teach that God is seeking men. All other sacred writ- 
ings show men seeking God, as Paul says (Acts 17: 27), feeling 
after him, “if haply they might find him,” but never indicating that 
they have succeeded in finding him. Dr. George Adam Smith says 
truly: “The divine essence of the Bible consists in this—the 
marvelous story, how it tells us that this moral warfare of ours is 
shared by God Himself, that the divine nature descended into that 
warfare, that it bears the agony of strife, nay, the shame and curse 
of it!—all for man’s salvation. ... That is why the Bible will 
always be the indispensable force to man’s salvation.” And let us 
note well that the second of these two questions involves us in God’s 
task. Today he is still asking of each of us the question that he 
put to Cain: “Where is thy brother?” Cain tried to evade the re- 
sponsibility involved in that question, but he could not. So some 
of us are trying now to evade it, but we cannot. We must answer 
God. 

The great key word in the gospel record which opens this truth 
to us is the word compassion. Three instances will suffice to make 
this plain. First, in Mark 8: 2, where Christ said he had “com- 
passion on the multitude,” for they had been three days with noth- 
ing to eat. In another place we are told that “they were like sheep 
without a shepherd.” The second is in Luke 10: 33, where our 
Lord explains the lovingkindness of the Good Samaritan by telling 
us that “When he saw him, he was moved with compassion.” The 
third is in Luke 15: 20, where the father’s love for his prodigal, 
now penitent, boy is revealed in this same spirit, “While he was yet 
afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and — 
ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” (Let us remember that 
the deepest meaning of the word indicates “suffering with.” ‘As _ 
we ponder these utterances of our Saviour, and realize the spirit 
of redeeming love that throbs in them, we recall the words also of — 
Paul and John noted in the first day of this Study, magnifying that — 


REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 27 


same redeeming love. This is bringing us to understand that 
striking phrase, “the dying love of Christ.” 


PRAYER: Let not hardship, or disappointment, or sorrow, blind 
my heart to Thy love for me, my Father. But make tt so real to 
me that in every trial I shall have the light of a blessed hope shining 
clear, bringing comfort and peace. 3 


Third Day: God’s Destiny for Men 


From the beginning God’s plan has always been the satne for 
men. We see it in his purpose in creation, “Let us make man, in 
our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1: 26). And when that image 
was blurred because of sin, God never lost sight of the destiny 
which he always planned for us, as we are taught by Paul in Rom. 
8: 29, “For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained (predesti- 
nated) to be conformed to the image of his Son.”’ And the Son had 
realized the purpose which God had for us at creation, for we read 
in Heb. 1: 3 that the Son is the brightness of the glory of the 
Father, and “the express image of his person.” To realize this plan 
for us all the work of Christ was inaugurated, both the truth 
brought to us in his life and teaching, and the redemptive work of 
atoning love accomplished on Calvary for us. While that part of it 
is “finished,” it is he who now “is at the right hand of God, who 
also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8: 34). Paul notes the 
working out of God’s plan in all who have come unto him in Christ. 
“We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the 
Lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory 

[of character], even as from the Lord the Spirit” (II Cor. 3: 18). 
To realize this plan, man would always have needed God, even if 
sin had not entered. But with sin’s entrance the distinctive feature 
in God’s plan is a provision for man’s salvation from sin. The state- 
ment at this point is the well-known utterance of John 3: 16, “God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 
Christ voiced the constraint upon the divine love in this redeeming 
work to the two companions on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24: 26) : 
“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into 
his glory?” He counted the cost and came, for he knew it would 


28 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


be worth while to open the pathway everlasting to all believers who 
would walk in that with him, and one day realize the high destiny 
which God planned for us all along. 

A glorious glimpse of the consummation of that plan for us is 
given in the book of Revelation (5: 9, 13): “They sung a new song, 
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals 
thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall 
reign on the earth. . . . And every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, 
and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb for ever and ever.” Paul describes it with equally strik- 
ing words in Eph. 4: 13: “Till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” 


PRAYER: O Divine Shepherd, help me to realize that “none of 
the ransomed ever knew how dark was the night which the Lord 
passed through ere he found his sheep that was iost,’ and give me 
grace to enter into the fullness of Thy plan for me. 


Fourth Day: God’s Gift of Grace 


In our Lord’s Olivet discourse (Matt. 25: 34), he gives us a 
glimpse into the truth that God’s redeeming love was at work long 
before the actual occasion occurred for its manifestation to men. 
There he tells us the King will say “unto them on his right hand, 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world.” The divine record indi- 
cates that from the very beginning of the race the light of God’s 
grace was shining upon mankind. Every law of God in all nature 
proves to be an expression of divine love, for it means only bless- 
ing when it is obeyed. Its light shines even brighter when the 
law is disobeyed, because its teaching is even plainer than before 
that when we obey we have the blessing, but when we disobey we 
miss the blessing. But light cannot avail unless there be eyes to 
see, and when the heart is darkened (Rom. 1: 21), then even the 


REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 29 


light that one had has become darkness, as Christ emphasized in 
Matt. 6: 23. But the light never ceased shining. Grace was 
eagerly ready, as Paul tells us in Rom. 5: 20, “Where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound.” 

God was eagerly looking for a man who would open his eyes 
to the light of divine grace. A few men here and there saw its 
gleaming, and turned to walk in the way of its leading. Enoch 
caught the vision of the ongoing of the soul with God, at the end 
of the earthly sojourn, and we read, in Gen. 5: 24, that he “walked 
with God, and he was not, for God took him.” The writer to the 
Hebrews (11: 5) tells us it was by faith that he “was translated 
that he should not see death; . .. for he had this testimony that 
he pleased God.” Noah also walked with God (Gen. 6: 8-22). 
He was a preacher of righteousness and one of God’s builders of 
vcharacter who stood alone against the world in loyal obedience to 
God and his commandment, trusting the promises of God, in spite 
of the unbelief of those about him. Abraham also looms large in 
the perspective of man’s religious history. It was he who stood 
alone against the idolatry of his day, having caught a vision of the 
sublime truth that God is a Spirit, and that life has its supreme 
values in the realm of the spirit. He turned to God, in splendid 
faith, as the leader of his daily life, denying self, prevailing in 
prayer (Gen. 12: 1-4). Read also Heb. 11: 8-12. 

Two men stand out in the history of Israel in Egypt, Joseph and 
Moses. Joseph revealed a very precious experience of the constant 
presence of God, and the sufficiency of the divine grace available 
for a man of faith and obedience (Gen. 41 and 45). Moses was 
the towering personality in all the history of Israel. The writer 
of the epistle to the Hebrews (11: 25-27) seizes upon the most 
significant fact about him, in the statement, “esteeming the reproach 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ... for he 
endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” Thus we have glimpses 
of God’s grace through the years, unfolding in law and promise, 
in psalm and prophecy, in fellowship with men of faith and 
obedience, condemning sin, raising up deliverers for his people, 
pointing forward to his promised Saviour, as in Isa. 53 and Isa. 
35. Note how these men of God were burdened for the souls of the 
people, pleading in intercession for them when they turned away 


30 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


from God, and eagerly bringing messages of promised mercy when 
they would return to God and live. Isaiah seemed to be conspicu- 
ous among the prophets as having the vision of God’s redeeming 
love one day to be fulfilled in the promised Messiah. 


Prayer: “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all genera- 
tions... . So teach us to number our days that we may apply 
our hearts unto wisdom.” 


Fifth Day: God’s Gift of Christ 


With all that men were able to take of God’s grace, the blur of 
sin was upon the human vision, and it was not enough. It was 
necessary that God should be perfectly revealed to men in a human 
life. Hence it was necessary for God himself to come down and 
become incarnate ina man. It was God the Son who came for this 
purpose. John tells us in his gospel (1: 1-14) of the coming of the 
Son, and he uses a striking statement about him: “We beheld his 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth.” Now for the first time we have that word “full.” Paul 
tells us, in II Cor. 4: 6, how God “hath shined in our hearts to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ.” 

Let us realize beyond question that it was absolutely necessary 
for the Word to become flesh. It is a universal law that every 
word must be made flesh before its value can be realized in human 
life. It must be brought down into human experience, into the 
daily life, into our actual comprehension, or we cannot possess its 
meaning and worth. Consider the word of electricity. For 
centuries it had a great message for men of power that God was 
waiting to give us, but-no man could read that word. Men only 
thought of it as a bolt of destruction from a god of vengeance. 
One day Franklin caught a little of its message, and others spelled 
into it a little further. Edison and Tesla and Marconi have read 
much further into it, until we have something of its power in heat 
and light and motive force. But just to the point that it has been 
made flesh is it ours. Beyond that point it eludes us still. Exactly 
so must it be with every word of truth, of light, of love. It must 
be made flesh. Hence when it was necessary for men to know 


REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 31 


the sufficient truth about God’s redeeming love, because no mere 
man could make that truth flesh, Christ came and gave us the 
fullness of that revelation, in so far as we are able to receive it. 
Christ meets every human need. Christ is the Guide to the 
lost. Christ is the Physician to the sin-sick. Christ is the Redeemer 
of the slave to sin. Christ is the revealer of the Father’s forgiving, 
redeeming love to the wayward children. Paul gives us a point 
of view in II Cor. 5: 19, when he tells us that “God was in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself.” Again he tells us, in Rom. 
6: 23, that “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal 
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Put over against all human 
need this fact of God’s abundant provision for every one of these 
needs, even to the gift of eternal life, and who can refrain from 
the exulting, jubilant exclamation of Paul (II Cor. 9: 15), “Thanks 
be unto God for his unspeakable gift!” For in giving us Christ, 
God hath given us “richly all things to enjoy’ (I Tim. 6: 17). 


Prayer: Help me to receive Thee, O Christ, that I may have 
power to become a son of God. Enable me to lay hold on eternal 
life, whereunto I am also called. 


Sixth Day: God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit 

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his 
glory ; but the flesh is temporal and local. God’s plan is for all men 
and for all time. Therefore a local Christ would not suffice. He 
accomplished the work which the Father gave him to do here in 
the flesh, and then he returned “up where he was before” (John 
6: 62). But before returning to the throne, he promised to send 
another Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who would 
abide with them and us forever (John 14: 16, 17 and 26) and would 
_ bring all things to their remembrance that Christ had said unto 
them. He commanded them (Acts 1: 4) to wait in Jerusalem for 
the fulfilment of the promise. They waited and prayed and 
wondered. Finally the day of manifestation and fulfilment came 
(Acts 2: 1-8) and the marvelous power of God rested upon them. 

Note well the meaning of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the 
disciples. Christ had said to them (John 16: 13, 14): “He shall 
not speak of himself... for he shall receive of mine and shall 


32 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


show it unto you.” Their first thought, as the mighty power of 
God came upon them, was that Christ had kept his promise, that 
he was at the throne of power, that he had come back by his Spirit 
to abide with them and work through them. Peter in his Pente- 
costal sermon reviewed the story of God’s promised Messiah, whom 
the Jews had rejected and crucified, but whom God had raised from 
the dead and exalted to his right hand of glory. Then he ex- 
claimed. He, he, the living glorified Christ, “hath shed forth this, 
which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2: 33). In this faith they went 
forth to be his witnesses. At the Beautiful gate of the Temple, 
Peter cried to the lame man: “In the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth rise up and walk.” Down at Lydda (Acts 9: 34), he 
cried again to the paralytic: “Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee 
whole.’ Thus we are to understand the atmosphere of the begin- 
nings of the Christian Church under the leadership of the Holy 
Spirit. The risen, glorified Christ was its life and power. 

Paul writes to the Galatians (5: 22, 23), that the fruits of the 
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are: “love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” To 
sanctify is to make holy, whole, wholesome. In other words, the 
work of the Spirit makes us to be more like Christ, who is the 
complete, whole life. Thus God consummates his provision for 
human souls in the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more 
that God can do for us. It now remains for us to appropriate his 
gifts. Just at this point we must most carefully consider Christ’s 
words about the work of the Spirit (John 16: 8-11): “When he is 
come he will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness and of judgment.” Note—“‘Of sin, because they believe not 
on me.” Right here we have the explanation of the failure on the 
part of so many to appropriate God’s gift of Christ. Note again— 
“Of righteousness, because I go to my Father.” We have no final 
argument to prove Christ’s righteousness to human pride of intel- 
lect. The Holy Spirit works this conviction in human lives. Note 
once more—“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is | 
judged.” Do not expect to see it by looking about you. This also 
the Holy Spirit must make evident to you. By the word of God, 
Satan is already a defeated foe, although the battle continues. The — 
end is certain. Christ is on the throne. 


REALIZING GOD’S REDEEMING LOVE 33 


PRAYER: Speak to me, O Christ, as Thou didst once speak in the 
flesh to Thy disciples, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” Then help me 
to give him full place in my life, as my constant guide and helper. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


Every Christian should be intelligently informed regarding the 
facts set forth in the three Studies which close with this day’s 
review. It is of vital importance that we should be familiar with 
the brief, yet helpful statements in this third Study regarding God’s 
plan for men and his provision to meet all human needs, in the 
salvation of men and their leadership in service. 

1. What does Christ teach regarding God’s valuation of a 
human life? How is this divine appreciation of man’s value em- 
phasized by the fact that Christ came to save us? What shall we 
say of Christ’s counting the cost before he came? Give some 
notable statements of Scripture which magnify God’s redeeming 
love. What difference will it make with a witness for Christ when 
he can speak of God’s grace out of his own real experience? Have 
you had the personal experience yourself? 

2. What is Christ’s teaching about God’s concern for each of 
us? What two questions are mentioned as found on the very 
first pages of the Bible? What do they teach about the Bible, in 
contrast to all other sacred writings? What three instances are 
quoted from the gospels to indicate God’s compassion for lost and 
needy men? 

3. What was God’s plan from the beginning for man? Quote 
the Scripture to show this. Also the Scripture that shows God’s 
purpose to have’ been ever the same. When sin entered, what ele- 
ment in God’s plan became specially prominent? What statements 
from John and Paul give us a glimpse of the final realization of 
God’s plan for man’s destiny? 

4. When did God’s plan for our redemption have its beginning? 
Who were the men mentioned in this Study who received God’s 
grace in a conspicuous way during the Old Testament times? 
Mention the point of importance stated in connection with the 
experience of each man. 

5. Why was Christ’s incarnation necessary? Give the two 
reasons stated, Give the illustration about the word of electricity 


34 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


becoming flesh. At what points does Christ meet human needs? 
What should be our attitude toward God for the gift of Christ? 

6. Why was it necessary for the Holy Spirit to come to the 
leadership of the Church? What was the great, constantly inspir- 
ing truth which made the distinctive atmosphere of the early 
Church? What are the fruits of the Spirit? What three distinc- 
tive things does the Holy Spirit do for men? 


Prayer: We thank Thee, O Ged, for Thy great redeeming love. 
Help us to prove our gratitude by our fidelity. 


STUDY IV 
ENLISTING OTHERS 


First Day: Hesitation to Attempt This Work 


From the beginning men have hesitated to obey the call of God 
to definite service for him. A notable instance is that of Moses 
(Exodus 3: 10-18), where God called him to go to Egypt to be his 
messenger in the deliverance of the Israelites. God told Moses 
that they would heed his message (Exodus 3: 18), but Moses re- 
fused to believe God, and insisted that they would not (Exodus 4: 
1). The story is familiar; but let it be noted that God did not 
accept the excuses Moses offered for not obeying him. And he 
will not accept ours. 

The hesitation of David was for a different reason. He knew 
God had called him to go and fight the giant of Gath (I Sam. 17: 
31-40); but his friends told him he was not prepared to do it. 
He must put on Saul’s armor. But it was not the natural way for 
David. Artificial preparation may well lead us to hesitate. Let 
us just be natural in God’s hands. It was thus that David finally 
went, and God used him, giving him a splendid victory over the 
enemy. We sometimes think we cannot be like some one else, and 
hence hesitate to try at all. But God is able to enable us, as we 
trust and obey him. 

The hesitation of Isaiah is most significant. He knew that God 
needed witnesses to the people, and he wanted to go for God, but 
felt unworthy. His desire was not to be excused from the duty, 
but it was to be cleansed and made ready by the power of God, the 
Holy One (Isa. 6: 1-8). As he realized the holiness of God, as 
never before, he also realized his own sin as never before. This 
was his preparation for cleansing, as it must be for all of us. Then, 
when the call came, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” 
I am sure we must think of the prophet exclaiming, as he rose to 
his feet: “Here am I: send me!” And he did not ask where he 
was to go before he said he would go. He did not ask what it 


35 


36 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


might cost to go. If only God would use him, he would seek 
nothing but to be used of God as his witness to the people. 

The hesitation of Jonah has nothing to justify it at all. It was 
simply miserable shirking in disobedience (Jonah 1: 1-3). Jonah 
did not understand God, and so he feared him, because he did not 
believe that God could send him to Nineveh and give him success 
in his mission. So he deserted. Jonah’s experience emphasizes 
once more the necessity of knowing God in order to serve him. 
Have we heard God say to us each one: “Arise, go”? Until we do, 
our better life has not yet begun. Jonah deliberately determined to 
shirk. How many of us do this continually. Many have no deep 
sense of duty; but many more who have will smother it if they 
can. Thus do many yield to the tempter. | 

But it was in vain for Jonah to try to disobey God and escape 
unhappy consequences. Moreover, the spirit of a prophet was lurk- 
ing down in Jonah’s heart, and he came to the moment, although 
weak and fearful, when he longed to confess his sin, and be for- 
given, so that God could give him another chance to attempt his 
duty. Alas, that discipline should so often be necessary to chasten 
the children of God before we are ready to do the Father’s will! 
All life is either an attempt to perform duty or to shirk it. Every 
deserter is trying to hide from God. Jonah’s experience illustrates 
the folly of such an attempt. So many go down from the highest 
level of possible service and subsidize their fine abilities for some- 
thing less worth while than the objectives which God would have 
us put first. 


Praver: Divine Master, Thou callest me to do the best thing m 
my contact with other lives. Let me not betray the spirit of the 
slacker or the deserter; but “arise and go” to whatever task Thou 
dost give me to do. 


Second Day: The Need of Intelligent Preparation 


Proficiency in anything is impossible without intelligent prepara- 
tion and faithful practice. Could any self-evident fact be more 
important for constant emphasis than this, especially in the details 
of Christian service? For the vast majority of church members 
have had no intelligent preparation for this very task of personal 


ENLISTING OTHERS 37 


witnessing for Jesus Christ which he commanded us to practice. 
Paul urged Timothy (II Tim. 2: 15), “Study to show thyself 
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” 
Evidently Paul had no sympathy with the idea that we are not to 
do everything possible in cultivating efficiency, while all the time 
we depend on God for divine grace to energise us in all we attempt. 
Many Christians excuse themselves from attempting personal work 
on this ground of their unpreparedness. But the time has come to 
place the responsibility for this lack of preparation. 

It is most encouraging to record the fact that many who thought 
they could not attempt this service, for lack of preparation or some 
other reason, have been led to study the subject. Soon they came 
to see that they ought to be winning others to Christ, have begun 
to wish they might, have taken the burden of an individual life 
upon their hearts in daily prayer, until one glad day they have 
discovered that God has used them to win the friend to Christ and 
the Church. Many such have become fruitful and joyful who 
thought they never could. They have caught a new vision of 
what it really means to be a Christian; their faith has been 
strengthened, and their taste of the joy in this service has led 
them to further effort and larger experience and more precious 
victories. 

How striking is the record of the first interview that Christ had 
with the two young men who “followed him” and “abode with him 
that day”! The story, in John 1: 35-42, makes it perfectly evident 
that the immediate result of that fellowship with the Master was the 
desire and purpose to go at once and bring others to him. Whata 
striking text for a sermon on this subject is found in verse 42, 
“He brought him to Jesus.” Here we have individual efforts to 
win individuals to Christ. They had a special preparation for the 
beginning of their task. For three years Christ was training 
them for their life work. The need for the first attempt is the sense 
of Christ’s personal constraint upon us in his love for others. As 
we go on in his service we shall grow in knowledge and tact and 
efficiency. We have also the case of Saul of Tarsus. For three 
days after his conversion, he was shut in alone with his Lord. 
Then he began to win others to Christ at Damascus. But he felt 
the need of a more thorough preparation and tells us he went into 


38 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Arabia, and after three years went up to Jerusalem (Acts 9: 1-22, 
and Gal. 1: 17,'18). 


PRAYER: Help me to be thoroughly honest with myself, O Lord. 
Teach me to realize what I must be and do if I would serve Thee 
and my fellowmen most faithfully and helpfully. 


Third Day: The Duty of Christian Leaders 


In the lesson for yesterday we suggested that the time has come 
to place the responsibility for the lack of preparation among 
church-members for this supremely important service of winning 
others to Christ and the Church. It is equally essential that they 
who are responsible for this great lack shall honestly face the fact, 
with sincere penitence of heart, and some intention to remedy the 
defect. God himself places the responsibility, in Eph. 4: 11, 12. 
Unfortunately the Authorized Version is faulty in its translation, 
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, 
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of 
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ.” Here we have the old idea of the special pre- 
rogative of the clergy, who were expected to do personal work, 
while the church members did practically none. Unhappily it is 
still an all too prevalent idea. ; 

But that is not the will of God for the leaders of the Church and 
other Christian organizations or movements. We have the correct 
translation of the Greek in the Revised Version, “And he gave 
some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and 
some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto 
the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.” 
Not three things which are to characterize the leaders of the 
Church; but one thing. The leaders are to build up the Church by 
training its members to do Christian service. Note the words, “For 
the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering.” One. 
need not argue that no Christian is “perfected in service” until that 
service includes this feature which Christ puts at the very first 
place. But it is a tragic fact that the vast majority of our churches 
have no place at all in their program for the training of willing 
members to be intelligently prepared to win others to Christ. This 


ENLISTING OTHERS 30 


is also true of the majority of Young Men’s Christian Associations, 
of special conferences for the study of almost every other phase 
of Christian service, and similar movements. Literally dozens of 
Christians have said to the writer: “I often felt that I would like 
to try to do this work; but I do not know how, and have never 
had an opportunity to be instructed on the subject.” 

Back of this failure on the part of pastors has been the absence 
of any adequate training of prospective ministers in the theological 
seminaries, so that they would know how to organize and develop 
this feature of their work. It is beyond question the most impor- 
tant feature of Christian duty on the side of definite service in 
building up the Church, whether directly in its communion, or 
through those institutions which represent the Church in special 
phases of its work. Yet it has been most commonly neglected. 
But if the challenge of the times shall be met by the Christian 
leaders of our day, they must rise to this task with final determina- 
tion to be faithful henceforth, however neglectful they have been 
in the past. Just here will be the difficult point of uncertainty for 
many. It is not easy for men who have not done this thing for 
years to reconstruct their program, even though they know it should 
be done. The inertia of neglect is hard to overcome. In fact it 
will not be unless, in importunate prayer, God’s grace is sought for 
the task. But it must be done, unless the followers of Christ are to 
go on in the same old inefficient way. 

A large number of instances could be cited of pastors, and a 
limited number of secretaries, who had evaded this task, but be- 
came quickened with the conviction of their duty, and determined to 
undertake it. They had feared that they could not enlist the 
cooperation of their people. They had feared that their people 
would not undertake this form of service. But they made a begin- 
ning and were agreeably surprised to find a goodly number ready 
at least to study the subject, with a view to intelligent prepara- 
tion. Report after report has been sent to the writer of the 
blessings that followed this endeavor. All such were immediately 
more usable in God’s hand, and he always used them to his glory 
and to the blessing of men. Then fearful hesitation gave place to a 
new confidence in the success which followed the effort to obey 
the plain will of God, a new confidence in the people and their 


Ww 


40 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


willingness to serve, and a new joy in the earnest of larger 
results for the Master’s cause in the world. (Let every one of us 
allow the truth to burn down deep into our consciences. When 
we know the loving will of our Heavenly Father, there is no 
possible excuse for not being willing to try to obey him. 


PRAYER: Give me grace, O Father, to be faithful to this trust, 
where I have been so long unfaithful. Give me faith in Thee and 
in the people, as I attempt to enlist them in this service, and to 
train them for efficiency. 


Fourth Day: A Training Class in Every Church and Asso- 

ciation 

The first necessary step in securing witnessing Christians in 
church or Association is to develop an atmosphere wherein the 
idea shall be constantly pervasive that God desires nothing so much 
on the side of our daily service as to have us recognize the constant 
duty and privilege of winning others to Christ and the Church. 
The writer to the Hebrews urged them to “obey them that have 
the rule over you ... for they watch for your souls, as they that 
must give account” (Heb. 13:17). Nothing could be more whole-— 
some in the atmosphere of any Christian institution than the > 
knowledge that the leaders there are constantly concerned about the 
eternal welfare of every life that feels the uplift of such a presence. 
Such an atmosphere cannot be developed in a day or in a month. 
But it may be cultivated far more rapidly than some would suspect 
who never tried it or felt it. God will honor all seed planting to 
that end. The idea should be prominent in sermon, in conversation, 
and in all services, for several weeks. In pastoral calling, the 
case of a neighbor will give natural opportunity for a talk on the — 
subject. 

The most successful method of developing this atmosphere is by © 
taking a series of Studies, such as is contained in this book, through 
a succession of weekly meetings, in church or Association. Where 
could one find a more practical list of subjects for meditation and 
prayer? Everyone who is willing to do so should possess a copy 
of the book, not simply to have during the weeks when it is used in — 


ENLISTING OTHERS 41 


the company studying it; but afterwards to take up as a handbook 
when occasion may arise in dealing with particular individuals, 
whose problems are discussed in the Studies. No earnest Christian 
could devote even a short time to a daily study of the subject with- 
out being greatly blessed thereby. These Studies lend themselves 
admirably to a weekly meeting. Parts of the lessons for each of the 
_ six days may be assigned to different persons for mention or dis- 
cussion, or the leader can take the Study for the week himself. 
Previous study by the members will add greatly to the interest 
of the meeting. 

In planning for this course, make the invitation as broad as 
possible. If used in a series of mid-week meetings in a church, 
every member of the congregation who is willing to study the sub- 
ject should be urged to attend. In an Association a similar general 
invitation should be pressed upon all who are willing to make a 
beginning. Make it plain that attendance does not pledge one to 
do personal work; but that it is hoped that the study of the 
subject will lead to increasing sympathy with the thought of the 
need of it and the growing desire to undertake it. Often it has 
proved true that a most unlikely person in the minds of the leaders 
_ has become the conspicuous success in the work. Frequently it was 
docility of spirit which led to the desire and purpose to obey. 

In a city in Ohio such a class was started by a pastor, who had 
never tried it before. One man in the church, who had had no 
sense of responsibility for souls beyond his Sunday school class, 
began to attend out of a spirit of loyalty to his pastor. Soon he 
became interested and concerned. He was a humble man, whom 
no one would have selected as the greatest winner of souls in that 
community. Yet within a few months his zeal became a matter of 
public note. God gave him access to the hearts of prominent men 
as well as to those of humbler friends. The Young. Men’s Chris- 
tian Association asked him to be the leader of two groups, young 
men and boys. That Association had the most remarkable personal 
work in its history. When Samuel was sent to anoint one of 
Jesse’s sons to be king, everyone would have thought David the 
least likely one of the whole number; but he was the man that 
God wanted. It is often so today. God passed all the ministers 
in Wales and touched Evan Roberts, the son of a coal miner, to 


42 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


be the leader of that mighty revival of 1904-5. So let every one 
who is willing to come be urged to begin the study. 


Prayer: When Thou wouldst mobilize Thy followers, O Master, 
let me not evade the draft; but help me to be eager to enlist for any 
service of adequate preparation that will enable me to be a good 
soldier of Thine. 


Fifth Day: Organizing Workers in Church and Association 


In connection with the general meeting for the study of the 
subject, there should be an organization in every local church or 
Association, consisting of one or more groups of workers. The best 
time for meetings should be carefully determined. Usually in 
churches the regular mid-week service has been the time for the 
general study of the book, and in nearly all such cases, the workers 
have preferred to have the special group meetings following the 
regular service, giving an additional hour at that time, rather 
than a separate evening. In Associations, as a rule, the best time 
for the groups to meet will be immediately after the class study. 
It will generally prove profitable for all of the workers to meet 
together for a few minutes, under the leadership of one who can 
bring some thought for the whole number, especially some request 
for fellowship in prayer. 

The larger company should be divided into smaller groups— 
averaging not more than six people. When members of a group 
win others, these new members should be added to the groups, 
thus beginning at once to win others. When by this method a 
group grows to the number of twelve, divide it into two of six. 
A small group works better, for it can develop intimate relations 
and sacred confidences, as the members counsel and pray together. 
Each group should choose a leader who will count it his privilege 
and responsibility to maintain among his fellows a strong sense of | 
fidelity to the work. After the introductory gathering for a few 
moments, the several groups should meet separately for the re- 
mainder of the hour. : 

Each group should form itself into a prayer band. Paul’s state- 
ment to the Corinthians (II Cor. 1: 11), “Ye also helping together 
by prayer,’’ should be kept in mind. From the very start let it be 


ENLISTING OTHERS 43 


realized, with utmost sympathy, and faith in God, that the entire 
work depends on him, and that “we are laborers together with 
God” (I Cor. 3:9). Each worker should have a little book in which 
should be entered the name of every worker in all the groups, 
however large the number. A precious bond of faithful interces- 
sion should be developed, under a covenant of daily prayer. It 
will come to mean much for every individual worker to know that 
a company of friends is lifting him up to God as he attempts to 
speak for Christ. 

A few years ago a young lady went from a company of workers 
whose members had pledged this ministry of intercession to each 
other. She had been trying in vain to win a friend to Christ. Now 
somehow she felt a new sense of reenforcement. Her friend had 
been like a stone wall of resistance. The workers met on Tuesday 
evening. On Thursday she called on the young lady, hardly expect- 
ing a change of attitude, yet with a new hope. To her amazement 
all opposition had melted away. The young lady herself said she 
could not understand the change that had come over her; but that 
she had come to a sense of her need of Christ, whom she now 
gladly accepted as her Saviour and Lord. The heart of the soul 
winner was overflowing with gratitude for the power of interces- 
sory prayer, in answer to which God had touched the hesitant soul. 


Prayer: Help us to realize the importance of loyal team work, 
our Father, and to remember constantly that we may count on Thee, 
when we meet the conditions of acceptable prayer. 


Sixth Day: Making It Definite 


Each member of the company should use the little book in which 
the prayer covenant names are recorded for another purpose also. 
He should keep the names of his special group in a separate place 
from the general list, and with these he should write the names 
of all those for whose salvation his group are praying and striving. 
The group should live in the atmosphere of Paul’s words to the 
Colossians (1: 3-6), loyally encouraging each other in prayer and 
unto fruitfulness. At the first meeting each member of the group 
_ should be ready to name at least one person for whose salvation he 
is concerned. Each member of the group should place all of these 


44 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


names in the little book. This is making it definite. Moreover, 
each member should begin to cultivate a special concern for the 
person whom he has named to the group. We should pray that 
God will keep this burden heavy on our hearts. It slips off so 
easily. 

In a later Study we will consider how to approach people. But 
first we are to emphasize the equipment we need for the work and 
the vital necessity of taking God into account. Meantime it is 
wise to develop from the beginning the group consciousness, espe- 
cially the beginnings of the ministry of intercession for those whose 
names are on the little-books. It helps very greatly to become 
personally interested in these Studies which immediately follow if 
we are already mentioning by name at least one person to God daily 
in whose salvation we are concerned, and about whom we already 
have the hope that God will use us to win him or her to Christ. 
Hence the value of organizing the groups early in the program of 


meetings. In the confidence of the group, the persons named 


should be discussed. One will be able to throw some light on this 
or that person’s condition, helping those to be wise who are plan- 
ning to approach the person. Sometimes, when one has not been 


successful in his effort, it may be deemed wise by the group for a - 


second member to make the effort, and later on a third effort might 
be made by still another. The fact that several are interested has 
often made an impression on one who has been approached. 

One of the most important rules for each group is that which 
requires each member to make a report of progress each week. 
Hold to this rule most strictly. Knowing that this report must be 
made each week is a constant incentive to each member to have 
something to report and to have at least one conversation with the 
person about whom he must report. When one member is dis- 
couraged, let every effort be made to stimulate him to patient 
perseverance. This is:a topic to be frequently emphasized at the 
short introductory meeting for all workers. It will be helpful to 
bring this book to the meetings of the group and recall this or that 
item that may quicken to renewed perseverance. 

Another vital condition to success is faithful attendance. Make 
a definite standing engagement, which nothing shall break, unless 
absolutely necessary. Put first things first in your plans for the 





En Os el Sagres i le 


Sn Nn Sy ae A 


i 


ag ee 





ENLISTING OTHERS 45 


week. You will often feel that you have not the time to go. 
Measure your responsibility for the success of the group before 
God. Your attendance at that very meeting may lead to the salva- 
tion of an immortal soul. The habit will grow. There is no dis- 
charge in this war. (Eccl. 8: 8.) When you have the joy of 
reporting a soul saved by God’s grace, you will want every member 
to be there. So they will want to see you when their report is 
brought. For it is certain that God will thus work, and such joyful 
reports will be made from time to time. 


Prayer: Thou hast taught us, O Lord, our Shepherd, that Thou 
dost call Thy sheep by name. Help us also to take Thy burden of 
individual souls upon our own hearts day by day. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


Human nature is a constant quality through the years. It does 
not surprise us that men hesitate to obey the commandments of God, 
for we know our own hearts so well. Yet we constantly see in 
Scripture records and in daily life how unwise such hesitation is. 
Whenever anyone obeys, God never fails to give a blessing to him 
or her. 

1. How did Moses hesitate to obey God, and why? What was 
God’s attitude toward Moses, and what is it toward us, when we 
hesitate? What is the lesson for us in David’s hesitation? How 
may we profit by the hesitation of Isaiah? Describe Jonah’s re- 
fusal to obey. Have we been shirking this duty of seeking to win 
others? What shall we do henceforth? 

2. How is proficiency attained in anything? What has been 
true of hesitant Christians when they once begin to study the sub- 
ject? Describe Christ’s influence upon Andrew and John when 
they abode with him. 

3. Who is mainly responsible for the failure of the Church to be 
a witnessing Church? What is the teaching of Eph. 4: 11, 12? 
What must be done if we shall meet the challenge of the times? 
What has been the experience when pastors have taken up this 
work? 

4. State the necessity of developing an atmosphere in every 
church in which this idea is pervasive. State the plan for a regular 


46 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


series of studies in church or Association. Who should be en- 
couraged to attend these meetings? Tell the story of the Ohio 
man who caught his inspiration at such a series of meetings and 
became such a fruitful winner of people to Christ. 

5. Describe the organization of the workers in a local church, 
or Association. How many should be in a separate group? Why? 
What is said about each group being a prayer band? What should 
be the place of prayer in this work? Tell of the young lady who 
was encouraged by this covenant of intercession to make another 
effort to win a friend to Christ. 

6. How should each member of the group make the work 
definite? What advantages grow out of confidential discussion 
in the group regarding individuals listed? How many should call 
on a person whom they are striving to win to Christ? What is said 
about the weekly report? How should the group deal with a dis- 
couraged member? State the importance of making attendance a 
matter of absolute fidelity. 


Prayer: Help me to realize, O Christ, that concern for others ts 
at the very heart of the Christian life. 


STUDY V 
SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 


First Day: Special Opportunities in Bible Schools 


From the beginning of the history of God’s training a people to 
know him, we have the command to teach the children, as in Deut. 
4:9, 10, where the people of Israel are told to “teach them unto thy 
children and thy children’s children... . That they may learn to 
fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they 
may teach their children.” So in Josh. 4: 6, 7, the memorial 
stones are to be set up so that when their children ask as to their 
meaning, they shall be taught the history of the nation’s redemption 
from Egypt. The modern Bible school is generally considered to 
be primarily for religious education. Yet such education is a 
means to an end, and that end is training in the knowledge of God 
and his Kingdom, so that all who are taught and trained shall enter 
upon this supreme service of the extension of that Kingdom. 
Hence the Bible school is the Church’s first organization at hand 
for purposes of propaganda. 

Manifestly one reason why so many people have never done 
anything to try to win others to Christ is that they were never 
taught to do so when they were young. Had they been given the 
conception from the start of the Christian life involving this service, 
and trained to perform it, what a different story would be written 
today! It has been done in Korea, where every one understands 
that being a Christian means being a winner of others to Christ. 
No section of the globe has seen such growth in the numbers of 
additions to the Church in twenty-five years as Korea has witnessed. 
Long ago this should have been done in our Bible schools. Nor is 
it too late to begin this definite training. Nothing would more 
surely tend to develop a witnessing church. Those who plan our 
lessons could easily work out a course which would include the 
particular commands showing the will of God, the instances of our 
Lord and the apostles and disciples winning others, and the evidence 


47 


48 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


that throughout the New Testament this is the outstanding objec- 
tive in the work of spreading the Kingdom. 

When the writer was a Bible class teacher in his college days in 
the city of Cincinnati, the first boy in the class who became a Chris- 
tian was about thirteen years old. His parents never attended 
church services; an older brother was indifferent, though a younger 
sister attended the Sunday school. We made a prayer covenant, 
which he himself specified, to pray and strive to win every member 
of his family to Christ and the Church. On calling at his home, 
we found that he was earnestly pleading with his mother to attend 
the services, which she soon did. The older brother became 
regular at the Sunday school, in answer to his mother’s desire. In 
time, the father began to attend occasionally. In a few months the 
mother and younger sister united with the Church. Later the older 
brother came. Just one year from the time when the boy united 
with the Church the father came, and the entire family of five 
occupied one pew together on that glad day. But the boy did not 
cease his efforts to win others. That was just a beginning. 


PraYveR: Help all who enlist under the banner of Thy cross, O 
Christ, to become ai once recruiting agents to bring others to the 
same enlistment. 


Second Day: Adult Bible Classes 


It is significant that one of God’s first mobilizing orders for the 
people of Israel was a command that three times in the year all the 
men should “appear before the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel” 
(Exodus 34: 23). Even in our time, when all sorts of conven- 
tions and conferences gather the men together, it would be consid- 
ered rather strenuous to gather three times in a year. Yet most 
enterprising business firms recognize it as vitally necessary to the 
best development of business and the element of loyal efficiency 
among their men to have them gather at least once a year to 
consider the matters that will advance the cause to which they 
have given themselves. Who can question that if the men of Israel 
had obeyed this commandment, there would have been a different 
story to tell of that people’s history? But the men yielded to the 
spirit of neglect. It was not convenient to go so often, and it was 


SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 49 


expensive. Again the voice of God has been calling the men to 
gather together in his service. 

It is a startling fact that seventy-five per cent of the young men 
of America are not accustomed to attend any church service. Yet 
at one time many of these were in the Sunday school. One day 
they imagined that they were getting too old to continue in this 
“school for children.” The main reason for this idea was that 
their fathers had ceased when they were young men to gather 
together to study the Word of God. Had their fathers continued 
this practice, their boys would never have had the idea that they 
were too old to come. The proof is in the fact that today where 
great classes of men are active, the boys are all looking forward to 
the time when they will be old enough to become members of the 
men’s classes. A larger program has been developed in recent years 
resulting in the formation and growth of adult classes for men and 
women. Many churches have been revolutionized by these classes. 
Moreover they have become recruiting ground for the Church. 
Wherever these classes flourish, the one outstanding fact about 
them is that every newcomer is met with outstretched hands on the 
part of leaders and members. Inevitably this atmosphere of 
welcome has spread into the church services, with blessed results. 

The men discover the man power of their church which they had 
not realized. Many classes have committees for work on various 
lines. Some have a Committee on Good Citizenship, making itself 
felt in more than one campaign, curtailing corruption and putting 
good men into office. Some have a Committee on Employment, 
which has a list of men seeking employment and also a list of 
business and manufacturing houses which apply to this committee 
when they want good men. In many homes, where a carpenter or 
other workman is wanted, an application to this committee has 
secured an opening for a member of the class for a few days. In 
some churches former Brotherhoods have been merged into the 
‘Bible class, which has become the biggest men’s movement in the 
church. A Social Committee has had much to do on the side of 
gatherings for getting better acquainted and making new members 
fully identified with the life of the church. 

Some day the men and women of our churches will awake to the 
fact that they cannot afford to drift on without being identified 


50 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


with this adult Bible class movement. A little planning will readily 
make it possible. In many cities the most prominent business and 
professional men are in these classes. In one state the governor 
is the teacher of a class of three hundred men, who not only gather 
once a week to study the Word of God, but apply the teachings in 
Christian service and citizenship. Many of these men had not 
attended Sunday school for thirty years, but are now as regular 
as they are at business during the week. They know their attend- 
ance is a direct contribution to a wholesome influence upon the 
younger men of the city. They also know they owe it to Christ and 
his Church to put the same untiring enterprise into the business 
of his Kingdom that they put into their money-making projects. 
They confess they have been slackers in this respect, avoiding the 
draft. But now they have enlisted, having heard the command in 
I Cor. 16: 13, “Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be 
strong.” 


Prayer: As Thou didst command the men of old to gather before 
Thee, give the men of today to hear that same command, and to 
realize how great the blessings are which will result when they 
obey. 


Third Day: Recruiting New Members 


The entire Bible school should be the organiZation which func- 
tions actively in recruiting new members for its own classes, and, 
as an immediate consequence, new members for the church and 
congregation. It goes without argument that the adult classes 
should lead in this work. Bible classes in Young Men’s Christian 
Associations should have as a definite objective the securing all 
of their members for membership in some church. It was God’s 
plan for all believers from the beginning (Acts. 2: 41, 47). 

One familiar method, frequently adopted, is worthy of cultivation. 
Slips are distributed to every member of every class, whose teachers 
are requested to secure information from each member as to those 
in the homes who are not accustomed to attend the services of the 
school or church. This will furnish a goodly list of prospects 
which should be followed up energetically. In securing the names 
the approximate age should be ascertained. Where there are very 


SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 51 


young children, women should call on the mothers. The boys and 
girls should invite their fellows, as should the young people. 
Adults should invite the parents and others. 

Many adult Bible classes divide their number into two divisions 
under captains. These divisions are grouped into teams, each 
under a lieutenant, who not only organizes the team for invitation 
work, but checks up his team in the matter of attendance. These 
teams are always striving for the best record, both in perfect 
attendance and in obtaining new members. New names are also 
secured in some cities from polling lists, and dozens of men have 
gone, by twos, making a house-to-house canvass for members, with 
surprising results. 

At intervals there should be a contest including the entire school, 
in which it should be divided into two parts. In succeeding con- 
tests this division may be made on different lines, securing variety 
of interests. A great campaign of invitation should be undertaken, 
within a given time, each side seeking to bring in the largest 
number. Weekly reports should be announced and posted, and 
every possible stimulus given to the contest. At this time every 
member of the church and congregation should become identified 
with the campaign, working with the adult classes, and especially 
helping to secure names of non-attendants. Enterprising leaders 
should lead the divisions. 

Experience has proved that new members are generally able to 
give names of their friends, who like themselves have not been 
accustomed to attend the services. These new members should be 
immediately drawn into active participation in the campaign of 
invitation. New and older members should call together. Experi- 
ence has also taught us to persist in this work of invitation. The 
caller is not to consider one attempt sufficient, but is to expect to 
continue the invitation week after week, in a kindly spirit, but also 
a persistent one. Instances could be reported of people who finally 
came just because the earnestness of persistent appeals convinced 
them of the sincerity and reality of the life of their Christian 
friends. This is what our Lord had in mind in Luke 14: 23, when 
he commanded his disciples to go out and “compel them to come 
in.” It is the compelling constraint of a love that hopes all things 
and works on. 


52 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


PRAYER: Help me to learn how to say “Come” to others, my 
Father, and not to be weary in well doing, but to recogmize this as 
part of my constant task. 


Fourth Day: Problems of Adolescence 


The Bible is the only sacred scripture which has a distinctive 
place for the child. This fact alone betrays a fatal lack in the 
sacred writings of all other religions. There is evident purpose 
in giving us the record of the child Samuel (I Sam. 2: 26, and 
3: 1-10). It is clearly intended to emphasize the fact that a little 
child often reveals a capacity for religious training too often un- » 
suspected. God’s thought of Samuel is a picture of God’s thought 
for every child. When our Lord “set a child in the midst” of the 
people (Matt. 18: 2), he challenged new attention to the importance 
of solving the problems of the race. For when we solve the 
problem of the child, all other problems find solution. 

The question is frequently asked, When is a boy or girl old 
enough to make an intelligent confession of faith in Christ and 
come into the communion of the Church? There is a very impor- 
tant set of facts which throw light upon this inquiry. There is a 
law of the land, which is the result of widespread investigation into 
the maturity of the child mind, its capacity to appreciate moral 
responsibility and its amenability to law. According to this law 
a child under seven years of age cannot commit a crime. Moral 
responsibility is not adequately developed before that age. Between 
the ages of seven and fourteen the law recognizes exceptional cases, 
very few from seven to ten, many more from eleven to fourteen. 
Many boys and girls from ten to fourteen are in our reformatories. 
Ordinarily most girls and boys at twelve are intelligently ready to 
appreciate the moral quality of their conduct, their desires, and their 
choices. It was at twelve years of age that Jesus went up to the 
temple (Luke 2: 42), according to the custom of Jewish boys. It 
was their way then of uniting with the church. 

The law declares that at the age of fourteen boys and girls are 
fully morally responsible. Hence at that age orphans are allowed 
to choose a guardian for life. At this age most boys and girls are 
in high school. Therefore it must be said with all earnestness that 
when a boy or girl has reached the age of fourteen, having been 


SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 53 


nurtured in the atmosphere of Christian home or church, and has 
not felt ready gladly to confess Christ, some one has not been 
faithful to that child. For it is possible so to teach the truth about 
our need, as it is suggested in the first Study of this book, as to 
lead all young people to realize their hopelessness out of Christ, 
and so to quicken their responsive love and gratitude to the Lord 
Jesus for all that he has done for us as to lead them to the 
_ desire and purpose to enlist under his banner for life. 

The four great crisis years in the lives of young people are from 
twelve to sixteen. It is most significant that during those four 
years there are more first apprehensions of delinquent boys and 
girls than in any other four years. It is equally important to note 
that during these same four years more boys and girls confess 
their faith in Christ and unite with the Church than in any other 
four years. It is impossible to contemplate these facts without 
being stirred with a profound sense of the Church’s responsibility 
for the rising generation before they reach those crisis years, and 
especially during that critical time of life decisions. All the facts 
_ that served to stimulate many of our boys to enlist in the recent 
war may be used with telling effect in urging young people to 
enlist under the banner of the Lord Jesus. 


PRAYER: Give me the spirit of a little child, Our Father, and help 
me to be specially concerned for the children, realizing how much 
better tt is to secure a whole life for Christ, than to give him the 
fag end toward the last. 


Fifth Day: A Program for Quiet, Intensive Work 


Call a meeting of all teachers of classes twelve years old and 
over, in church or Association. Emphasize their responsibility 
for those in their classes who are not yet confessing Christians. 
Then present and adopt the following plan. Have each teacher 
invite to his home every member of the class who is a member of 
the Church. Explain that the plan has been adopted for all 
classes in the grades mentioned to have every teacher and profess- 
ing Christian in each class form a prayer-covenant to pray daily 
for all members of each class who have not confessed Christ, and 
to strive to win them to Christ and the Church. Form such a 


54 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


covenant with those present, beginning the prayer there together, 
and agreeing to accept opportunities that may open to speak for 
Christ as his witnesses. The covenant is specially to be remem- 
bered during the time of the meeting of the class. 

Should there be a class without a professing Christian, let the 
teacher invite a boy or girl who is a member of the Church, and 
who would be influential with that particular class, to meet with the 
teacher at a given time. Invite the boy or girl who seems to be 
most likely to consider favorably the idea of confessing Christ with 
a view to seeking to win the others. Tell that one member the plan, 
and have the visiting boy or girl confirm it with an appeal to decide 
for Christ, emphasizing the worthy motive of being then able to 
make a covenant with the teacher, in accord with the whole school, 
and in the hope of bringing the others. Have special prayer with 
this one and press the matter to the point of securing a decision. 
If this should not succeed the first time, have some other boy or girl 
meet with the teacher and that one member again. Thus the 
increasing influence of a second professing Christian will be help- 
ful to bring the decision. Pray and strive for that one member 
until the decision is made and the prayer-covenant formed. As 
rapidly as a member of the class decides for Christ, draw him or 
her into the covenant, gaining momentum in seeking all of the 
remainder. 

Two by-products have been realized from this plan in schools 
that have adopted it. First, an entirely new spirit in the class 
during the half hour of Bible study. Formerly all the girls dis- 
cussed new hats on the side more or less, and the boys talked about 
the current games. But now each Christian was in a spirit of 
prayer and eagerly hoping that some one would make a decision 
that day. There was better preparation and more prayer, resulting 
in a company of earnest, intelligent Bible students. The second 
gain was in better attendance. 

The adult Bible classes should adopt the same plan in their teams. 
They should have the church members in each team meet with the 
lieutenant and form the prayer-covenant for the others. These 
groups will do well to maintain their identity in the grouping of 
workers in connection with the weekly meeting mentioned in the 
last Study. Every member of every prayer band, in school and 


SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 55 


church, should attend faithfully this midweek service where the 
whole subject is being studied, thus strengthening their purpose 
and quickening their enthusiasm in the work. This program 
has proved to be the most practical, workable, fruitful plan the 
writer has ever known. 


Prayer: Lord, help me to become a faithful intercessor, that I 
may come into fullest sympathy with Thee, who art “ever living 
to make intercession for us.” 


Sixth Day: Training Young People to Be Soul Winners 


There is a method of teaching which developes young people, as 
well as older ones, along the line of intelligent preparation for 
personal work. It is the question method, which ever has in mind 
the furnishing of the member of the class with an equipment that 
will enable him to discuss intelligently the whole subject of a 
decision for Christ and why it should be made. Let us take, for 
example, the first Study at the beginning of this book. Let the 
teacher ask some such question as: “John, suppose one of the boys 
at school tomorrow should ask you if you are a Christian—what 
would you say?” John would probably answer, “Yes,” for he is a 
member of the Church. Then the teacher might ask, “Suppose he 
should ask you what it means to believe in Christ as your Saviour— 
what would you tell him?” There might be some hesitation at this 
point, and the teacher would then help with the illustrations con- 
tained in the first Study. In this conversation, the question method 
would be continued always. For example, some one in the class 
should be asked what he would think if he were to find a child on 
the street who had lost its way, and so on. 

The point must always be kept in mind that John is preparing to 
talk to his friend at school in a conversation on the subject. All 
the answers are such as he can use in a conversation of this 
character. In the course of a few weeks the members of the class 
will be familiar with the simple but adequate teachings that explain 
why Christ becomes our Saviour because he is Guide to the lost, 
Physician to the sin-sick, and Redeemer for the slaves to sin. Take 
another illustration. Ask the class to turn the word “forgive” 
around and tell what they have. The answer will be—give for. 


56 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Just so; and all forgiving involves giving for in some form. Every 
time one forgives, he gives up something for the sake of the recon- 
ciliation. Often one gives up his own rights. This is the fact 
which is at the heart of the atonement, which is always made when 
one forgives another who deserves punishment. Thus God gives 
Christ for us, as he forgives our sins, for he is in Christ reconciling 
us to himself through Christ’s life and death. 

Again, ask the question, “Would it be right for a governor to 
forgive a man in the penitentiary, if the man gave no sign of being 
sorry for his crime?” Instant replies of “No.” Why not? Thus 
the class is led to realize that God is not justified in forgiving us 
unless we repent sincerely, which means forsaking the sin. More- 
over only faith can accept a guide by following him, or accept a 
physician by trusting and obeying him. Thus all essential points 
may be covered. 

The psychology of this procedure is evident. When boys and 
girls know how to meet the questions about being intelligent Chris- 
tians, they are far more ready to talk about the subject than when 
they were ignorant and had never been urged to accept opportuni- 
ties to do so. It is as true of older people. The class might well 
study the material in Studies X and XI, presenting common excuses 
that people give for not accepting or confessing Christ. In simple 
language this material may be presented. The results of such 
training are certain and manifold. The young people understand 
the whole plan of salvation far better because they have studied it 
with the idea of telling it to others. They develop a sense of 
personal fellowship with Christ blessed in its fruitage. They 
become willing witnesses for him as opportunity offers, as they 
realize as never before the world’s need of Christ, whose ambassa- 
dors they are. 


PRAYER: O Father, give us the eager desire to help Thy children 
to know Thee in Jesus Christ, so that they may realize that thts ts 
life eternal and seek to help others to know Thee. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


Since the main business of the Christian on the side of service 
is to win others to Christ, it is quite apparent that the early training 


See eens So 


SPECIAL PLANS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 57 


of boys and girls to understand this service, with a view to begin- 
ning to win others, as soon as they have accepted Christ for them- 
selves, will result in a development of their personal Christian 
experience that will be precious, and in winning thousands who 
otherwise might not be reached. 

1. What is said of the Bible school as an available organization 
for the extension of the cause of Christ? What should be done in 
Bible schools to prepare the scholars to become interested in 
winning others to Christ? What is the history of Christianity in 
Korea? Tell the story of the boy in Cincinnati who was used to 
bring his whole family into the Church. 

2. Give a reason why so many young men who were once in 
Sunday school are now entirely outside of the Church. Describe 
the modern adult Bible class movement, and what it is doing in 
many churches. What has proved to be the distinctive feature of 
the success of such classes? Why should all men and women be 
identified with these classes? 

3. Describe the method of securing new members for schools 
and churches by distributing slips among the classes and following 
up the names thus secured. Describe the method of dividing adult 
classes for team work in securing new members. What is said 
about these new members being generally able to report others who 
have not been attendants at the church services? 

4. What is said about the Bible in its recognition of the child? 
What is the statement touching the age when boys and girls may 
intelligently confess Christ? What is said about the four crisis 
years in the lives of young people? 

5. What is the program for a quiet, intensive work in Bible 
classes either in churches or Associations? How may adult 
classes adopt this program? What by-products have been secured? 

6. What method should be adopted in teaching young people 
to understand the plan of salvation? How should they be trained 
with a view to talking to their friends about confessing Christ? 
What will be their attitude, after such training, toward doing this? 


PRAYER: Grant me, O Lord, a clear appreciation of the necessity 
of definite organization in Thy service, so that I shall plan the work 
and work the plan with faithful zeal, 


STUDY VI 
PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 


First Day: The Spirit of Obedience 


A good soldier obeys orders. The title of this book is suggested 
by the experiences through which we have just passed in mobiliz- 
ing men for the recent war. We are told we need “a moral 
equivalent for war,” which is only another way of saying that we 
need some high incentives that will inspire us to be strong in the 
fight against sin in our own lives, and faithful in accepting oppor- 
tunities to enlist in the great cause of Jesus Christ in the world. 
We all have great need of the qualities of a good soldier. Those 
qualities may be said to be concentrated in the spirit of obedience. 
In I Sam. 12: 14, 15, we find a most important statement regarding 
man’s relation to God, involving the place of this spirit of obedi- 
ence: “If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, 
and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall 
ye... continue following the Lord your God; but if ye will not 
obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of 
the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you.” History 
has proved it true, and never more so than in our day before our 
eyes. 

It was the spirit of obedience which explained all that was done 
by our splendid American soldiers, and by all faithful soldiers, 
regardless of privations in absence from home, regardless of the 
unspeakable filth of the trenches, regardless of weary forced 
marches or inconvenience in travel, regardless of the fact that at 
any moment in the midst of battle they might be called upon to lay 
down their lives for the cause. And this spirit of obedience was 
more than the determination to obey orders, whatever those orders 
might be. It was also the spirit of loyalty to a great cause, even 
the cause of justice for little nations as well as big ones, the spirit 
of readiness to sacrifice their lives, if need be, for the sake of the 
liberty of all people who had not yet the chance for self-govern- 


58 


—_ 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 59 


ment. The ideals which were set before them were a mighty 
inspiration to splendid fidelity. Moreover, this willing obedience 
was further inspired by their confidence in their leaders. We 
realize also that if obedience had given way to mutiny or rebellion, 
defeat instead of victory would have followed, and far greater 
loss than was sustained because of their fidelity. It always costs 
much to be faithful; but it always costs far more not to be. 

Is not the lesson plain beyond any possible argument? God’s 
Word still stands. There is no greater need in the Church of 
Jesus Christ than that every individual who enlists under the 
banner of his cross shall realize that this same spirit of obedience, 
of loyalty to the cause, at whatever personal inconvenience, at 
whatever cost of life and gold, is absolutely necessary to the 
triumph of Christ’s cause in the world. Who can question that the 
spirit of personal willfulness in the face of Christ’s manifest will 
for his followers, compromising with Christian duty on the levels 
of fleshly desires and worldly ambitions, explains the failure and 
defeat of Christ’s Church today? It is nothing else that explains 
the Church’s pitiful inefficiency, after nineteen centuries of so-called 
Christian service. Let us have just one generation of consecrated 
Christians, who enter the service of Christ as our soldiers entered 
the service of the countries allied in this war, fired with the spirit 
of Paul, saying, “This one thing I do” (Phil. 3: 13), and that one 
generation would see the Gospel carried to every spot on the planet. 


PrRayER: Forgive me, O Christ, who didst go to Thy cross in 
Thy fidelity, for my miserable self-satisfied and self-centered life, 
professing to be Thine and yet refusing to be obedient to Thee as 
soon as 1t becomes inconvenient, or costs more than my selfish 
comfort 1s willing to surrender. Quicken in me by Thy divine 
grace the spirit of true loyalty to Thee and Thy cause. 


Second Day: Cultivating Christ’s Love for the Lost 


In former Studies it has been intimated that nothing will so 
surely empty us of self, and stimulate us to fidelity as good soldiers 
of Jesus Christ, as the sense of his constraining love. But a 
general statement is never gripping. We must have more detail. 
This is given us by the apostle Paul in I Cor. 13. Study this 


60 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


remarkable chapter and note how this divine love actually proves 
its presence, its power, and its blessing. At the heart of that 
wonderful description of Christ-like love we have this most sig- 
nificant fact, v. 5, “Love seeketh not her own.” Unselfishness is 
the deepest reality in the love of Christ. And this will find expres- 
sion in unhesitating sympathy for one whom we are seeking to 
help. Unselfishness of this sort is rare. Many propose to accept 
Christ’s salvation; but not to share the fellowship of his sufferings 
(Phil. 3: 10). 

Another element in this Christ-like love largely explains the 
spirit of unselfishness. It is the spirit of humility: “Love vaunteth 
not itself; is not puffed up” (v. 4). Could we but realize what 
pitiful failures we are as efficient and fruitful Christians, in the 
face of Christ’s command to make disciples of every creature, it 
would surely put us into the dust. Humility leads to sympathy 
with our fellowmen, however fallen and seemingly hopeless their 
case may be. Moreover “love beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things” (v. 7). The truth that invests every 
fallen man with dignity and importance is the fact that he can be 
transformed by the grace of God (II Cor. 3: 16-18). Moreover, 
this spirit of humility remembers that one does not know it all, and 
reveals a modesty of assurance, while it is certain of the sufficient 
grace of God availing for every kind and time of need. 

The whole chapter breathes a certain enthusiasm in loving men, 
a quenchless ardor for needy souls, which is suggested by that most 
inspiring statement (v. 8), “Love never faileth.”’ True enthusiasm 
means God in a man. Its common usage often involves a mis- 
nomer. We see it largely manifest in Paul. He could write this 
chapter, as many another could not have done. Paul was in “dead 
earnest,” that is, he was living for just one thing, and was dead to 
all else. The lethargy of spiritual laziness is the shame of the 
Church today. The lack of enthusiasm cuts the nerve of service in 
thousands of lives. Its presence explains the marvelous exploits 
of the heroes of the faith, both those known to fame and those 
known only to the eye of God. : 

Again, this spirit of love involves patience and perseverance (vv. 
4, 7, 8). Very often we shall find one whom we seek to win to 
Christ to be nothing less than exasperating. But to show impa- 


ES 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 61 


tience with such a one is to admit defeat. Let us remember those 
words about our Lord in Matt. 26: 63, “But Jesus held his peace.” 
Suppose he had not! There is a poise of Christian love that has 
learned to ‘“‘wait patiently” in the midst of trying conditions, how- 
ever discouraging they may be. Then the power to love is never 
so glorious as when it will not let go. We read (John 13: 1) that 
Jesus, “having loved his own, loved them to the end.” Tennyson 
caught the meaning of it when he cried: “Strong Son of God, im- 
mortal love.” Hear Paul also in Acts 20: 24: “None of these things 
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
finish my course with joy.” 


PRAYER: Burn out all of self, O Christ, and fill me with Thy love 
until every other undeserving man shall be to me as much the 
object of Thy grace as I have been, so that I shall be gentle, 
sympathetic, buoyant, hopeful, and unfailing in my efforts to win 
others to Thee. 


Third Day: Faith in God’s Power to Save 


The tap root of all sin is unbelief. Therefore all failure must be 
largely explained by a lack of faith in God. This does not mean 
simply a failure to look to God for help in personal service. The 
trouble lies deeper. If we thoroughly believed God’s Word about 
the deadly fatality of sin, we would feel very differently about the 
lost, and could not continue in our indifference. Many would not 
deny the teachings of the Word of God; but they do not really 
believe that their friends who are out of Christ are hopelessly lost. 
Hence they are slow to believe God’s Word regarding the necessity 
of having the Holy Spirit regenerate their lives in order to attain 
their salvation. They pass lightly over such statements of Christ 
as are found in Matt. 25: 46, “These shall go away into everlasting 
punishment.” They even begin to wonder if Christ really said it, 
or meant it. They fail to realize that the background of John 3: 16 
is that men are perishing out of Christ, and that God so loved the 
world that he gave Christ, that “whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life.” These are also in danger of 
being satisfied with the idea that people believe in Christ if they 


f 


62 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


have made a nominal profession, though their lives betray a lack of © 


reality in their faith. 

It is also just as essential to believe that Jesus Christ saves “them 
to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb. 7: 26). 
One must first appreciate his own helplessness in sin before he can 
have a genuine burden for those whom he believes to be going the 
way of eternal death, or before he can realize in a vital way the 
power of God’s redeeming grace, revealed in Christ’s life and death. 
Too many church members have had no vital experience of salva- 
tion by Jesus Christ. Recently a young lady in the city of Chicago 
was asked if she were a member of a church. Replying in the 
affirmative, she was then asked whether she found Jesus Christ a 
daily blessing in her life. Surprised, she said: “Why, no, I don’t 
know much about Christ.” Her friend was then surprised, and 
asked: “But did you not say you are a member of the Church?” 
Her reply was not less startling than significant: “Why, yes, our 
minister asked me to join the Church; but he said nothing to me 
about Christ.” Such a church member could never be a winner of 
others to Christ, until she first had known him as her own Saviour 
and Lord. She knew nothing of God’s power to save. 

The history of the religious experience of the race is beyond 
question to any thoroughly candid student of mankind. Faith in 
the redeeming work of God in Jesus Christ is the absolutely essen- 
tial condition of the task and privilege of witnessing to others re- 
garding God’s power to save from the slavery of ignorance and sin. 
In our next Study we are to consider the place of God as the 
divine factor in the whole work of redemption. Here we are 
specifying the need of a living faith in his power to save the lost 
before we can be usable in his hand in helping those who need him 
to find and accept his salvation. The only sufficient and efficient 
provision of salvation for penitent and believing men is God’s pro- 
vision in Jesus Christ. As we are taught in Acts 4: 12, “Neither 
is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” 

Some years ago in Japan the writer met a major in the Japanese 
army who had become a Christian. He testified that he had long 
dismissed the thought of Buddhism, as unworthy of his respect, and 
for some time he had been reading the teachings of Confucius, as 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 63 


being the best ethics of which he knew. But he confessed that 
during this time he loved the life of sin and lived it, as if Con- 
fucius had never been born. One day he noted the life of a lieu- 
tenant in his command who was not joining in the dissipations of 
the other officers of his mess. The lieutenant said he had become 
a Christian and that the old life was gone forever. He urged the 
major to read the Gospel of Jesus. At first he disregarded the 
suggestion; but later yielded to the repeated appeals of the younger 
officer. He.was quickly fascinated by the noble life and teachings 
of Jesus. He was amazed to see how he came to hate his old life 
of sin and to love this life which Christ opened to his earnest soul. 
Ere long he accepted Christ as his Saviour and enlisted under the 
banner of his cross. He then ordered a goodly number of the latest 
Japanese translation of “Pilgrim’s Progress” and sent a copy to 
every officer he knew, saying the book contained his experience and 
he hoped that they too would find Christ as he had done. His final 
words were these: “I wish to testify that there is a power in the 
life and teachings of Jesus Christ which will change the desires of 
the human heart, if a man will be honest with him.” His was a 
living faith in God’s power to save to the uttermost all who would 
take Christ as he had done. 


PRAYER: “Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief.’ Help me 
to “practice the presence of God” in all things, and to accept Thy 
W ord as the only rule of faith and life for me. 


Fourth Day: Purity—The Responsibility of Example 


Every student of the Bible finds one commandment of God 
written in a flaming message on all its pages,—Ye must be clean, 
Psalm 51: 6, 7, 10. All of God’s dealings with men teach this. If 
we be unclean, we must be cleansed and kept clean, if we would 
have the favor of God. Moreover God has provided constant 
cleansing for us all, as indicated in I John 1: 9, “If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.” Outward ceremonial cleansings 
always pointed to the demand for a clean heart. The outward life 
may be a whited sepulcher, but “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6: 7). 
The psalmist had discovered the truth, for he wrote (Psalm 66: 18), 


64 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” God 
cannot use anyone who willingly compromises with known sin. 
We must conquer here, or we shall be conquered. And here again 
we must enter by faith into Christ’s victory for us. Paul warns, 
in I Cor. 3: 16, 17, against defiling the temple of God, “which temple 
ye are.” Purity involves motive, desire, thought, word, and deed, 
the whole life and every day of the life. 

Not only is a sincere life necessary if we would be usable in 
God’s hand, but it is also necessary if we would have the confidence 
of men. To be a witness one must have something to say, and say 
it. But the first question when he takes the witness stand is 
whether his character is such as to command the respect and 
confidence of those who know him, otherwise his testimony is 
vitiated by his unworthy life. There is a subtle, but very real 
power when a man’s word rings true. Nothing gives an appeal to 
an unbeliever more power than a consistent life back of what one 
says. Mere intellectual argument, of itself, will not be so effective. 
They should go together. But the power of example is very real. 
The Christian must ever be sensitive to this vital truth. 

Some years ago a Christian who lived in a village in Hlinois 
heard his next door neighbor use some blasphemous language. He 
was amazed, for while he knew his neighbor to be an unbeliever, 
he had no idea of the extent of his infidelity. A great burden for 
that neighbor’s salvation came upon him. He did not sleep com- 
placently, for the burden increased. Knowing his neighbor to be 
argumentative, he tried to prepare himself to answer the common 
objections of unbelievers. One day he saw the neighbor at the 
front gate and hurried over to speak to him. But when he reached 
the gate, all his prepared speech had left him, and he could only 
take his neighbor’s hand in both of his own, and say: “Oh, my dear 
friend, I am so concerned about your immortal soul.” Overcome 
by strong emotion, he turned away and walked back home, feeling 
that his effort had been a failure. The unbeliever was genuinely 
astonished, but as he watched his Christian friend, he said to him- 
self: “I have known that man for twenty years. He is pure gold. 
If he knows Christianity to be so real as to lead him to have such 
concern about me, it must be worth while, and I want to know 
about it.” The sincerity of a godly life convinced the unbeliever 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 65 


as mere logical argument never could have done. He sought out 
the Christian neighbor and came himself to be an earnest Christian. 


Prayer: I pray for earnest sincerity, O God. Help me to know 
the joy of a daily friendship with Thee, so that when I speak to 
others they will recognize in me a living epistle, “known and read 
of all men.” 


Fifth Day: Prayer—The Secret of Power 


Something has been said about prayer in former Studies, and 
more will be said. In this Study the emphasis is at the point where 
we urge that no man can be adequately equipped to win others to 
Christ who is not cultivating the prayer life, which is much more 
than asking God for things. In our next Study we shall urge the 
necessity of depending on God to do what no man can do. At this 
time we desire to urge that communion with God develops a con- 
stant sense of his nearness that revolutionizes the life in which the 
habit of prayer has not been cultivated. It is evident, in Mark 1: 
35, that Christ could not get on without communion with his Father. 
There we read that, “in the morning, rising up a great while 
before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and 
there prayed.” He practiced his own teaching about praying in 
secret (Matt. 6: 6), being alone with God. Again we read, in 
Luke 6: 12, “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out 
into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” 
Who of us can dare to think that we can enter into Christ’s fellow- 
ship with the Father unless we cultivate the prayer life as he did? 

Moreover it is quite significant to note that in many instances 
where Christ manifested the power of God to men, it was as he 
prayed that such power was exercised. When he fed the multitude 
he looked up to heaven (Luke 9: 16) for the blessing of God 
upon the whole transaction. On the Mount of Transfiguration we 
read (Luke 9: 29): “And as he prayed, the fashion of his counte- 
nance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.”’ 
At the time of the healing of the boy at the foot of the mountain, 
he said to the disciples, who could not heal the boy (Matt. 17: 21), 
“This kind goeth not out but by prayer.” This statement justified 
the inference that he always prayed at every such experience, when 


66 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


God was using him to reveal the divine love and the divine power. 
At the grave of Lazarus (John 11: 41, 42) we read that “Jesus 
lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, ] thank thee that thou hast 
heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because 
of the people, I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent 
me.” Yes, the prayer life is the secret of power with God for men, 
and with men for God. 

Spurgeon was once asked by a young student for the secret of his 
power. The young man asked what work he must do in order 
to have similar power. Quick as a flash, Spurgeon replied: “Knee- 
work, young man. Knee-work!’ A woman in a western city who 
had but recently taken Christ as her Saviour was so burdened for 
her husband’s salvation that she could not eat. Her life of constant 
prayer for her husband reminded one of Paul’s statement in Rom. 
8: 26, that “the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered.” The writer called on the 
husband, hoping to persuade him to accept the Saviour. He im- 
patiently declared that he did not know what to make of his wife. 
She was so changed, declaring daily that she could never be happy 
until he became a Christian. When urged to do so, he replied: 
“No, I do not intend to.” We ventured to say: “Mr. McM wit 
your wife continues to pray as she is now doing, I think you will.” 
He hesitated a moment, and then replied: “Well, I am not going to 
do it yet.” Down in his heart he knew he could not resist very 
much longer the compelling power of that woman’s Spirit-filled 
prayer life. Within two weeks he yielded that stubborn will and 
accepted Christ. A family altar was one of the first evidences that 
his had become a Christian home. 





PRAYER: O Christ, whose life must needs be constantly nourished 
by communion with the Father, teach me how to pray and not to 
faint, so that my intercession for lost men may prevail. 


Sixth Day: Knowing the Bible—God’s Ensamples 


The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. Men must be trained in the 
use of the sword, or it will not only be ineffective, but dangerous at 
times. Hence we must know our Bibles. We read in I Pet. 1: 25, 
“The word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 67 


which by the gospel is preached unto you.” Every Christian 
should have a working knowledge of the Bible. In later Studies 
we shall suggest special passages of Scripture which may be used 
to answer many common excuses and objections that people give 
for not accepting or confessing Christ. One may make a special 
study of such passages and be at once far better equipped to deal 
with such excuses, even though a general knowledge of the Scrip- 
. tures should come later. 

But back of such technical information, we need nourishment for 
our spiritual lives which can be secured only by feeding on the 
Scriptures as bread for our souls. How suggestive are Paul’s words 
to Timothy, (II Tim. 3: 14-17), “But continue (abide) thou in the 
things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of . . . from 
a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 
“Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; 
that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto 
every good work.” Most of the Bible history is biography. We 
find inspiration for our own lives by studying the records of those 
who learned the way of blessing by their obedience, as well as by 
their mistakes and sins. Paul tells us, in 1 Cor. 10: 11: ““Now these 
things happened unto them by way of example; and they were writ- 
ten for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” 
We are to emulate their fidelity and avoid their unfaithfulness. 

The Christians who love their Bibles are the salt of the earth. 
No one ever became usable of God to a notable degree who neg- 
lected his Bible. We find our way becoming plain by learning how 
God guided and helped others. As well expect to thrive without 
nourishing food as to grow spiritually without regular help from 
God’s word. Cut off an army from its base of supplies, and there 
will be no more victories. An unopened Bible in many a home 
will explain the fact that the atmosphere of that home has deterio- 
rated, although the occupants try to still their accusing consciences 
and refuse to confess their neglect. A busy lawyer once heard 
his pastor declare that no man could cultivate the habit of reading 
his Bible faithfully every morning, even for a few minutes, who 
would not miss the blessing, if it should be omitted even for one 


68 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


day. He did not believe it at the time, but was quickened to the 
point of deciding to try it for awhile. One morning a tardy rising © 


meant either missing the usual train to the city, or missing his — 


Scripture reading. The Bible was discarded. The result was an 


astonishment. His sense of lack through the day was so real that © 


he determined thereafter to have his quiet hour with God, though 
it meant taking a later train. The fruit of the habit is precious. 
This twofold cultivation of the habit of communion with God by 
prayer and the study of his Word will lead us more and more to 
desire above every other thing to grow into his will for us. We 
may well appropriate the following words of Andrew Murray as 
expressing our own aspirations, “Beloved, let us seek to be filled 
with the Holy Spirit. Let our hearts be filled with a deep convic- 
tion of what we lack, a desire for what God offers, a willingness to 
sacrifice everything for it, and we may rest assured that the marvels 
of Pentecost in Jerusalem and Samaria will again be repeated.” 


PRAYER: O Christ, Thou art the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 
Thou hast translated the written word into the living Word. Help 
me to do this, so that I may be adequaiely equipped for Thy service. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


An equipment for Christian service cannot be put on by artificial 
means. It comes only by growth, and requires time for its develop- 
ment. But it may be cultivated successfully, and far more readily 
than one might suppose, when we give God his full right of way in 
our lives. No one is justified in supposing that he is never to 
possess certain gifts because he may lack them. We have a 
wonderful promise in Phil. 4: 19, “My God shall supply all your 
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’’ Consider 
Mr. Moody’s defects as he began to grow into larger and ever 
larger power. God’s grace is equally available for every man 
who seeks it as he did. 

I, Illustrate the necessity of obedience in the Lord’s service 
by the experience of our soldiers in the recent war. What elements 
entered into this spirit of obedience on the part of our men, which 
must also find place in the life of every loyal Christian? What 


PERSONAL RECRUITING EQUIPMENT 69 


has been the history of the Church in this matter? How has it 
been in your own life? 

2. What is the deepest fact about Christ-like love as stated 
in I Cor. 13? How does the spirit of humility affect the Christian 
in his relation to the unsaved? What is said of the enthusiasm of 
this love? What is said of the necessity of patience and perse- 
verance? 

3. What is the tap root of all sin? How does unbelief affect 
us in our thought regarding the condition of unbelievers, and also 
regarding God’s power to save them? What does history prove 
as to the necessity for faith in Christ, if the world is to be saved? 
Tell the story of the Japanese major. 

4. What great message of the Bible is outstanding from first 
to last? Why is a true life necessary if we would seek to be used 
of God? Why is it also necessary if we would hope to be influ- 
ential with men? Tell the story of the Christian in Illinois who 
won his unbelieving neighbor to Christ. 

5. How does constant communion with God help a man in 
Christian service? Cite the instances in Christ’s life mentioned 
to indicate his habit of cultivating communion with the Father. 
Cite the instances given to show that Christ was accustomed to pray 
in connection with the manifestation of God’s power among men. 
Tell the story of the woman who could not eat until her husband 
was converted. 

6. Why must we know the Bible in order to attain efficiency in 
personal work? What is Paul’s statement to Timothy about the 
Scriptures? How do the Scriptures nourish our souls? What 
does God intend us to find in the record of the lives recorded in the 
Scriptures? What is said about unopened Bibles explaining the 
deterioration evident in many homes? Tell the story of the lawyer 
who cultivated the habit of daily Bible reading every morning. 


Prayer: Help me, O Master, to be a recruiting agent for Thee, 
always eager to win others to enlist in Thy cause. 


STUDY VII 
TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 


First Day: God Only Can Save 


Some things may look alike on the surface which are different at 
the foundations. Paul speaks, in Acts 20: 24, of “the ministry 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of 
the grace of God.” It is to this Gospel that he refers in his letter 
to the Galatians, 1: 6-9, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed 
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another 
gospel: which is not another, [for it is false teaching]; but there 
be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be 
accursed.’ He repeats the anathema. Then he unfolds the true 
Gospel which teaches that there is one only salvation for men, and 
that is God’s provision by the death of Jesus Christ, whose atone- 
ment avails for all who in penitence for their sin, and by faith in 
Christ as God’s anointed Saviour, accept Him as crucified on 
Calvary for their sins and raised again for their justification. 

Many teachers today, who purport to be loyal to evangelical 
religion, are perverting that one true Gospel. They talk about “an 
improved social order,’ as if such a desired condition could be | 
realized unless individuals are saved as individuals. Every Chris- 
tian should seek every application possible of the principles taught 
by Jesus Christ to every phase of human need, individually and 
collectively, but disappointment awaits that man who imagines that 
such improved conditions can ever come by “reformation and self- 
development.” There is only one way of solving human problems 
of betterment, and that is by the divine regeneration of individual 
lives. After that, saved men should grow steadily along every line 
of devotion to the betterment of social, industrial, and economic 
conditions, as the fruit of our living out “the mind of Christ,” as it 
must transform human relationships. 


79 


TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 71 


No man can regenerate a human heart. No man can cleanse a 
human soul. No man can sanctify and keep a human life. 
God only can do these things. Our Lord said (John 6: 44): “No 
man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw 
him.” Nor is this an arbitrary method, as Christ proceeds to make 
plain, saying (v. 45), “It is written in the prophets, And they shall 
be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and 
hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” The writer of the 
epistle to the Hebrews asserts (1: 1, 2) that “God who at sundry 
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by 
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” 
John declares concerning Jesus Christ (1: 14) that he was “full 
of grace and truth.” Thus in Christ, and Christ only, we have the 
truth in its fullness. Jesus himself declared, in John 14: 6, to in- 
quiring Thomas: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me.” We need not multiply Scrip- 
ture to show that this is the clear teaching of the New Testament. 
To evade it or ignore it, is fatal to any program that hopes for the 
salvation of mankind unto God. 


PRAYER: God of all grace, help me to be true to Thy Word, and 
to realize that to Thee alone men must look to be saved. 


Second Day: Christians Are God’s Instruments 


While God is the only agent of salvation, he uses two instru- 
ments, his revealed truth and his human children, in making his 
salvation known. We have shown that it is his plan to have his 
followers become his constant witnesses, and his faithful inter- 
cessors, in carrying out his plan to save a lost world. Paul declares 
to us, in I Cor. 3: 9, that “we are laborers together with God.” 
Then he adds to them (vv. 9-11) and to us: “Ye are God’s hus- 
bandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God 
which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the 
foundation, and another buildeth thereupon. . . . For other founda- 
tion can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” This 
work to which Paul referred was his ceaseless declaration to the 
Corinthians, and all who would hear, this same Gospel of the grace 


Ve ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


of God, which provides salvation for sinful men through Jesus 
Christ. 

The great and real danger is that we should forget that we are 
God’s instruments, and imagine that God is a laborer together with 
us. That is the mistake of many who fail to realize God’s dom- 
inant place in the work in which he is using us. Some years ago 
the writer was visiting a missionary in Syria, who related the 
following story. He had become discouraged in his work, for he 
had failed in his efforts to win to Christ several men who lived in 
his field. He knew the fault could not be in God, and he did not 
know what was wrong with himself. So he decided to give God 
one full week in which to show him what he needed to know in 
order to be a more fruitful servant. He opened his Bible at the 
beginning, and as he turned its pages, very soon the fact dawned 
upon him that everything depended upon God in a supreme sense, 
as he had not paused to realize in all his life before. This was 
made strikingly clear at Jericho, where God said, in effect, to 
Israel: “We must take this city in such a way that the people will 
realize that it is not the work of men, but of God.” He wanted the 
people to realize that it would be a good thing for them to have 
Israel’s God for their God. So Jericho was taken, not by man’s 
power. It was the manifest gift of God to his people. 

My friend said that he made a list of names of the people whom 
he had been trying to win to Christ, and lifted them up to God in 
daily intercession. He had been asking God to help him convert 
them. Now he asked God to do his own divine work in their 
lives, to predispose their minds and hearts and wills by his mighty 
grace. Through the week he went on turning over the pages of his 
Bible, and the truth kept growing more and more evident. On 
Friday of that week a young man came to see him, whose name was 
on the list, deeply concerned about his salvation. He was also 
anxious about his father, whose name was also on the list. God 
was manifestly working. On Monday my friend started out to call 
on all of those men, who were scattered about the Lebanon hills. 
He hardly dared to hope that all had made their decisions; but 
every one of the men whose names were on his list decided for 
Jesus Christ. With a shining face, he declared that he would be a 
different missionary all the rest of his’ life. 


TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 73 


In previous Studies, and in those to follow, we are giving place 
to the fact that God needs loyal men and women to be his instru- 
ments in this great task of the Church, and that God is ever seeking 
such to be usable in his hand. But at this time the great truth to 
realize is that it is only as God is recognized as the source of power, 
and we look to him to do his work of grace through us, that we 
may hope to see a mighty wave of salvation sweep over the earth. 


PRAYER: O Christ, we hear Thee saying, “Without me ye can do 
nothing.” Help us to abide in Thee, as the branch abides in the 
vine, that we may bear fruit to the glory of the Father. 


Third Day: God Does Divine Things Today 


There are those who admit that God was in direct touch with men 
in the time of the Commonwealth of Israel, and in the beginnings of 
the Christian Church, who however hesitate to think that he is 
ready to do divine things now. They question whether the words 
of Christ in John 14: 12, apply to us now: “Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto 
my Father.” But one thing is certain, if the words of Christ mean 
anything, they teach that he intended us to know that just as God 
was working in Christ himself, so God will work in us, if we believe 
in him. When our Lord commanded his disciples to wait for the 
promise of the Father, and declared that power would be given unto 
them when they had received the Holy Spirit, it is clear that he did 
so because they could never do of themselves what God would do 
through them. We have already noted how Peter magnified the 
fact that the only explanation of their lives and deeds, in the days 
following Pentecost, was the fact that the living God was working 
in and through them. 

There is a widespread notion today that because we live in a 
world of law we cannot expect God to hear and answer our prayers, 
as if the prayers made any difference with God’s dealings in our 
lives. A young sophomore from college was telling some farmers 
at the village grocery all about this realm of law, and how foolish 
it was to suppose we could have such freedom in our relations with 
our Heavenly Father as some people imagine. Turning to one of 


74  ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


the farmers, he said: “If you were to let go of that knife in your 
hand, it would instantly fall to the floor, because of the law of 
gravitation.” Quietly the farmer tossed it up and stuck it in the 
wooden ceiling, whereupon the sophomore exclaimed: “Oh, but 
there are also other laws.” Ah, yes. There are other laws also. 
The unscientific fact about this modern teaching is that it presumes 
to speak from the realm of physical sciences and ignores entirely 
the marvelous realm of the liberty of the spirit. Today men are 
entering many spheres of “nature below man” and doing amazing 
things that nature left-to itself could never do. It is man’s free 
spirit, whose characteristic is its mastery over matter, that is doing 
these things. 

Our actual experience has thus given us a scientific conception of 
the freedom with which interference is possible in the midst of a 
thousand laws, without in the least doing injury to those laws, but 
simply by playing higher laws over against those in the lower 
sphere. And this is the only scientific attitude for us to maintain 
toward God’s liberty of movement in the midst of his world. Our 
Lord Jesus Christ took special pains to teach us that God is our 
Father (Matt. 10: 29-31), and that he is vitally interested in each 
individual human life. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? 
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not 
therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Look 
through a microscope at a drop of water at a needle’s point and 
realize the amazing infinity involved in God’s thought of minute 
details. 

Consider the teaching of Christ about God as our Father, and 
apply it in the light of our own experiences. Imagine a child 
coming to an earthly father and asking for something, and that 
father replying to his child that we live in a world of law, and it is 
absurd for the child to suppose it possible for his request to make 
any difference in the father’s dealings with the child! Such super- 
ficial thinking would be amusing, if so many did not accept it as 
true. When we realize the liberties that obtain in an earthly home 
in the realm of the spirit, dominating all kinds of details in the 
physical realm, and how the prayers of a child for many reasons 
are certain to make a difference with what the father may do; how 


TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 76 


can we fail to appreciate immediately how much vaster the liberty 
of our Heavenly Father must be in that same realm of the spirit 
which at once controls the physical and also influences much of the 
spiritual. 

But beyond this intellectual appreciation of the reasonableness of 
our belief in God’s immediate interest in us, and his readiness to 
hear and answer our prayers, doing divine things as Christ taught 
us he would, we have the actual experience of those who have taken 
God at his word and proved that he makes good. Science gives 
first place today to the laboratory method. So do the children of 
God who test his promise, after meeting the plain conditions. 
Thousands of humble, loyal children of God are daily proving that 
he hears and answers prayers in a very direct and unmistakable 
way. The truth is supremely vital to the right attitude on the part 
of Christians in our day, if we are to give God his right of way in 
our lives, in the hope that we may prevail in prayer to Him to pour 
out upon all flesh a mighty manifestation of his saving grace, until 
multitudes in all sections of the globe shall proclaim Christ Lord. 


PRAYER: Father in heaven, help me to take the teaching of Thy 
Son, my Lord, regarding Thy concern for me personally, as un- 
questioned truth, so that I may enter into such conscious relation 
to Thee as Thy child, as will give such meaning to my life as tt 
could never otherwise have. 


Fourth Day: Expectant Faith Honors God 


When the psalmist wrote (Psalm 62: 5): “My soul, wait thou 
only upon God; for my expectation is from him,” he touched the 
heart of a believer’s right relation to God. But his words do not 
describe the attitude of the average Christian of our time. We are 
not expecting God to do things now, as we should. We have a 
striking illustration in the account of the feeding of the multitude 
by our Lord. All four gospel records tell the story, which would in- 
dicate its importance. Our Lord asked Philip the question (John 
6:5): “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” The next 
verse contains an illuminating side light in the statement: “And this 
he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.” 
Evidently he wanted to see how much faith in him they would re- 


76  ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


veal. He had been doing wonderful things all that day. How keenly 
he must have been disappointed when they ignored all that he had 
done as bearing upon the situation before them, saying in sub- 
stance: “It cannot be done, for there is not money enough.” Philip 
answered him, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient 
for them.” How it must have hurt him! 

Then we read of the way the disciples would have solved the 
problem (Matt. 14: 15): “His disciples came to him saying, Send 
the multitude away that they may go into the villages, and buy 
themselves victuals.” How many times have we felt that way, 
as we have faced the multitudes in our great cities, in spiritually 
desert places, without the Bread of Life, and night coming down 
upon their souls. If we could only get rid of them! But behold 
the answer of our Lord (v. 16), “But Jesus said unto them, They 
need not depart; give ye them to eat.” Imagine the astonishment 
of those disciples. They had nothing with which to feed the 
people; yet Jesus told them to do it. How could they consider this 
a practical suggestion of the Lord? The trouble with them was 
that they were measuring the situation by the visible assets of men 
and money, just as we generally do, and leaving the Christ with his 
divine resources out of account entirely. 

Jesus knew their thoughts, and asked them (Mark 6: 38) : “How 
many loaves have ye? Go and see.” What he wanted was that 
they should discover, not how much they had, but how little. When 
the five loaves and two fishes were reported, note the statement 
which they made (John 6: 9): “But what are they among so 
many?” What is the use talking about it? Although the Master 
had said they need not depart, giving the assurance that it could 
be done, yet they never once awoke to the fact that he might do it. 
Then Jesus commanded the little lunch to be brought to him, and 
we read, Matt. 14: 19, that “looking up to heaven, he blessed, and 
brake, and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the 
multitude.” 

It was in that moment that he lifted his eyes to heaven and 
prayed that he taught his unbelieving, unexpecting disciples the 
great lesson of that hour: “You had quite forgotten God. God is 
still living, the great Creator of life and all the resources of life. 
Your little and God can do it. You had been thinking only of the 


TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT = 


power of man, as if God had no resources available for you. You 
had quite forgotten God.” Then in a few moments those disciples 
were doing it. Though they had nothing of themselves, they were 
actually feeding the multitude. And yet how thoroughly they 
realized that they were not doing it, and that God was doing it. 
Ah, yes. There we have the picture of what is going on in the 
average church today. God wants us, and wants our little; but 
he also wants us to know that he is ever waiting to do for us and 
through us things we can never do alone. How it must hurt him, 
as it hurt Christ that day, when we quite forget him as our available 
God now, as ever! In all our dealings with people whom we seek 
to win to Christ, we must ever feel as those disciples felt as they 
fed the multitude. While we are doing it yet we are not doing it; 
God is doing it, though using us as his instruments. 

There is a faith, common among Christians, which accepts Jesus 
Christ as Saviour. There is a certain faith of obedience that seeks 
to some degree to obey his will along some lines of service. There 
is a faith of submission, that will bear and suffer without murmur- 
ing. But the element of faith that is largely lacking in the experi- 
ence of the average Christian is the faith of constant expectation 
from God, that eagerly rests in his promises and counts upon his 
divine help. Yet this faith honors God as no other does. And it is 
vital to a larger Christian growth and service that we cultivate 
this expectation from God in this living faith that will not doubt 
his promises. No man ever truly did this who did not find that God 
always makes good and keeps his promises. 


Prayer: Open the eyes of my faith, O God of all power, so that 
I may realize that Thine angels are all about me, though I had no 
suspicion of the fact. May I hear Jesus say to me, as of old: “Fear 
not; only believe.” 


Fifth Day: Not Power, but Channels of Power 


The truth contained in the foregoing lessons leads to a distinction 
which we venture to suggest, believing that its recognition is im- 
mediately helpful to all who keep it in mind. We read in Psalm 
62: 11, “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power 
belongeth unto God.” We have noted that service brings power, 


78 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


and that men everywhere are seeking power in some form. The 
explanation of all this desire for power is that power accomplishes 
certain things which we desire to have accomplished. Just here 
we discover the line of cleavage between man’s ambition in the 
realm of having, and his aspirations in the realm of being. It is the 
distinction between the desire to glorify ourselves in the eyes of 
men, and the desire to glorify God in all that we do and all that we 
are. The true Christian seeks to have those things accomplished 
which only God can do. He is not so anxious to have the power 
in his own hand, as to see that power at work which transforms 
and emancipates sinful lives. 

In the familiar parable which we call the parable of the Vine and 
the Branches (John 15: 1-8), we are accustomed to emphasize the 
great thought therein to be the necessity of our abiding in Christ, 
as the condition of our best living. That is to say, the relationship 
between our Lord and ourselves is most prominent in our minds. 
But study the passage again and note the words “and my Father 
is the husbandman.” Both the vine and the branches are for the 
husbandman. It is he who taketh away the unfruitful branch. It 
is he who pruneth the fruitful branch that it may bear more fruit. 
Note also the emphasis in v. 8, “Herein is my Father glorified, that 
ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” Ah, yes. Christ 
ever sought to have his disciples realize that the great objective 
was to glorify God. It is God who ever “worketh in you both 
to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 13). We can only 
work out what he works in, when it comes to being recipients of his 
power. 

It becomes apparent, therefore, that God does not so much 
separate himself from us as he gives us of his power; but he exer- 
cises his power in and of himself, using us as the channels of that 
power. How clearly the disciples realized this when they were 
feeding the multitude. Now when we realize this truth, we are 
the more emptied of self, as we look to God to do his own work 
through us, and we are in much less danger of forgetting that God 
is ever the source of power. Our thought of the slightest self-sufh- 
ciency is gone. We recall the sad mistake that Moses made at the 
rock in the wilderness (Num. 20: 10), when he said: “Must we 
fetch you water out of this rock?” As if Moses and Aaron could 





TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 79 


have done it! That fatal slip on Moses’s part shut him out of 
Canaan, as the leader of Israel. It was so vital that the people 
should never for a moment forget their utter dependence on God. 
And it is just as vital now in our lives. We are in danger, because 
of our presumption at times, of missing the blessing. 

Hence let us cultivate earnestly the appreciation of the truth that 
we are only channels of power. We are to study to show our- 
selves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed 
(II Tim. 2: 15): by study of Scripture, by study of men, by study 
of methods, fitting ourselves to be better instruments in God’s hand. 
Then we are to be as tools ready at his hand, to use as he sees 
best. This is the significance of Paul’s appeal in Rom. 12: 1, “I 
beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service.” He also tells us in the next verse how 
to know when we are usable at God’s hand: “And be not con- 
formed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of 
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, 
and perfect will of God.” 


PRAYER: Teach me, O Father, this intimate relation with Thee, 
wherein I shall not fail to do all that I should to be ready for Thy 
use, and at the same time shall not fail to look to Thee the source of 
all power in every service Thou dost give me to perform. 


Sixth Day: No Case Too Hard for God 


That is a very significant statement which God gives us by the 
mouth of his prophet Jeremiah (32: 27), “Behold, I am the Lord, 
the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?’ It 
challenges us today, quite as much as in any former time. Of 
course we understand that in this statement God does not ignore 
all that he teaches elsewhere about the conditions which must be 
met before we can go to him with acceptable and prevailing prayer. 
But it does mean that when we give him the response of obedient 
wills, with an eager, expectant faith, there is no limit which our 
unbelief should dare to fix to the power which he will exercise along 
the lines of his revealed will, when that exercise of power makes 
for the highest welfare of men and for the advancement of the 


80 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Kingdom of God upon earth. Christ makes it very plain that we 
may not always know what is best for us in specific requests which 
we make of God (Luke 11: 11-13). Sometimes we think we are 
asking for bread, when we are really asking for a stone, and he 
will not give it. 

But in those matters where God has revealed his will to us, there 
we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace’ (Heb. 4: 16), 
confident that we can never ask too much. And this applies par- 
ticularly in the realm of seeking to be used of God in saving lost 
souls. For his will is clearly revealed touching this matter, as in 
Matt. 18: 14, where our Lord Jesus Christ teaches that “It is not 
the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little 
ones should perish.” Again we have that strong statement of the 
apostle Peter (II Pet. 3:9): “The Lord is not slack concerning his 
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- 
ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come 
to repentance.” Therefore no Christian should doubt that it is the 
will of God that every soul that is out of Christ should be saved. 
Hence in our prayers of intercession we may be absolutely confi- 
dent that we are in the will of God, and we may continue in such 
importunate prayer as our Lord himself encouraged, when he 
taught, in Luke 18: 1, “that men ought always to pray and not to 
faint.” Not only so; but it must follow that no case is ever too 
hard for God. This must be a constant inspiration to us when 
we face a difficult problem. It would be impossible for us; but it 
is not “too hard” for God. Hence we must never be discouraged 
because the task is a hard one. 

More than once we have known of friends and relatives of 
unbelievers who had ceased to pray for their conversion, convinced 
that it was useless to do so. When asked if they considered the 
case too hard for God, they were always startled, for they at once 
saw how they had practically decided just that, since they had 
ceased to pray. Or possibly they felt that it was not God’s will to 
save in such cases. That very state of mind betrayed the fact that 
such Christians did not have the right relation to God, and had 
missed that nearness to him possible for us, thus having such weak 
faith as to lack entirely that quickening sense of confidence in his 
readiness to do his divine work in answer to acceptable prayer. 





TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT 81 


More than once, in those same instances, new prayer covenants 
were made, and a new ministry of intercession was begun, which 
God honored by saving the friends whom those of weak faith had 
considered hopeless. 


PRAYER: Again we hear Thee saying, O Christ, “With God it ts 
not impossible, though impossible for men.” 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


Paul points out the secret of the failures of mankind, in Rom. 1: 
21. Men have imagined, in their pride of intellect, that they can 
get on without God, so they glorify him not as God, and their 
foolish heart is darkened. The same attitude of mind is as fatal 
in our day. Power is of God, now as it has ever been, and it 
always will be. He who is wise recognizes the fact and rightly 
relates himself to it. 

1. What does Paul say to the Galatians about the one only true 
Gospel? Is the tendency today in much thinking about the im- 
provement of the race to deny God his place? What must be done 
in us before we are saved that man is utterly unable to do? And 
that God can do? 

2. In what sense are we laborers together with God? What is 
our danger in this connection? Tell the story of the missionary in 
Syria. What lessons should we find in that story? 

3. What does Christ teach us about God’s power being available 
for us today? What is the teaching so common about our living in 
a world of law? Wherein is this idea unscientific? What do we 
know of the freedom of men in the realm of the spirit? Illustrate 
God’s liberty, as my Father in heaven, to answer my prayers, by my 
constant liberty to answer the prayers of my children in this same 
realm of law. 

4. How does expectant faith honor God? Bring out the points 
in the record of the feeding of the multitude which illustrate our 
unbelief, on the one hand, and God’s available power on the other. 

5. Where is the source of all power? What is the truth empha- 
sized in the parable in John 15: 1-8? What advantage do we have 
when we remember that we are simply channels of God’s power? 

6. Where does God say that nothing is too hard for him? What 





82 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


does he mean to teach, and what not to teach, by that saying? q 
What does it signify when Christians cease to pray for loved ones © 
out of Christ? a 


PRAYER: Forbid, O God, that I should so far forget Thee as to — 
presume to be able to do Thy work among men without Thy power — 
working in me. And help me ever to be usable in Thy hands in — 
Thy service. 


STUDY VIII 
HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE 
First Day: When Necessary, Study the Individual 


Sometimes the individual whom we seek to win to Christ will be 
open-minded and responsive to our approach. In such case there 
is no distinctive problem to meet. But very often we are aware 
that the individual is not responsive, or sometimes he is antagonistic 
to the Christian appeal. It is because of these more or less difficult 
people that we have occasion to study methods of approach and 
efficient appeal. Here we may well recall the suggestion of the 
apostle James (1: 5) that if we lack “wisdom” we may receive it 
from God. This special knowledge of men Jesus possessed, as we 
note in John 2: 24, 25, and he used it in approaching people, as in 
the case of the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar (John 
4: 5-15). 

When it is evident that the individual presents a problem, it 
usually proves to be a saving of time and a gain in effectiveness 
to make a study of certain important facts which may influence 
his attitude toward the claim of Christ. It will be important to 
study his temperament, that elusive something in a person that is 
always specially evident in his attitude toward things religious. 
One can speak more freely to an even-tempered person, whereas he 
must be guardedly patient and gentle in dealing with another who is 
nervous and irritable. Such people are very likely to feel that they 
have not been fairly dealt with, and will be found to question the 
sincerity of Christians and also to doubt the love of God. 

Frequently one’s circumstances will throw a line of light which 
will enable you to be wise, whereas you would be at a decided dis- 
advantage if ignorant of these conditions. When you know his 
circumstances, try to put yourself in the place of the individual, and 
seek to appreciate his point of view. Often one’s companions will 
reveal the susceptible point. Paul reminds us of the possibilities 
here when he wrote to the Corinthians (I Cor. 15: 33) “evil 


$3 


84 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


communications corrupt good manners.” Harmful companions will 
deter a somewhat responsive soul. Further, it is evident that a 
person’s weaknesses should be understood. One vulnerable point 
may be fatal. Remember the “heel of Achilles.” When Paul 
urged the Ephesians (6: 10-18) to put on “the whole armor of 
God,” his point was that unless they should be “able to quench all 
of the fiery darts of the wicked,” they were not safe, for one is 
enough to kill. Sometimes the real weakness is not on the surface, 
though at first glance you might think you had discovered it. It 
may be hidden; but you must find it before you can be used effec- 
tively to help definitely the individual concerned. 

Then it will prove helpful to discover one’s strong points, for 
two reasons. First, you may often draw one into the atmosphere 
of church life and service by persuading him to assist in the use of 
a musical gift, either vocal or instrumental. A young man was 
once urged to join a Bible class in order to become a member of 
a baseball team, made up of members of the class. The invitation 
had just one objective, which was realized within six months. 
That young man became a member of the Church and set himself 
to win some of his friends to Christ. Sometimes, however, it will 
be the part of wisdom to avoid one’s strong point, if it should prove 
to be intellectual skill in argument. As illustrated later on in this 
Study, an attempt to argue with such a one will hinder rather than 
help the situation. 


PRAYER: When I find a man overtaken with a fault, help me, O 
Lord, to be eager to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, 
lest I also be tempted. 


Second Day: Make an Appointment for an Interview 


Experience has proved that it saves time to do this, and secures 
several advantages over the off-hand method of approach. Few 
people are responsive to a sudden, unexpected presentation of ques- 
tions regarding their attitude toward the claim of Christ. They 
will be much more likely to prove amenable to kindly conversation, 
when an appointment has been made. To secure such an appoint- 
ment is not usually as difficult as most people seem to imagine. 
Moreover, most people will respect a direct request for an interview 


HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE 85 


much more than when they know that you are beating about the 
bush as if to introduce the subject accidentally. Be perfectly open 
about the matter, remembering that it is business of vital im- 
portance, and trust God to move upon the mind and will of the 
individual. He will be with you as he was with Moses (Exodus 
6: 11) in his interviews with Pharaoh, until Israel was set free. 

Some years ago the writer asked a young bank clerk, on a 
Thursday, if he would be willing to make an appointment to have a 
frank talk about the subject of confessing Christ. He replied that 
it would do no good to discuss the subject. We assured him that 
we always gained something by such interviews, urged the fact that 
we were rather good friends, and that it would be a sympathetic 
talk. He soon agreed to come Saturday evening at eight o’clock. 
He was there at the stroke of the clock. To our astonishment the 
interview lasted just fifteen minutes by the watch. To every 
question he made answer with an unhesitating directness that 
indicated, not only that he had thought the subject through during 
those intervening hours, but also that the Spirit of God had touched 
him with constraining power. He announced his decision to 
become an earnest Christian. We prayed together and it was sug- 
gested that he should make a public statement regarding his decision 
the next evening at the young people’s meeting. He did not feel 
equal to that, but promised to pray about it. At the meeting he 
quietly arose and made the statement. At my side a young lady 
uttered an exclamation of surprise. Immediately we asked her if 
she ought not to do the same thing. As she hesitated, we made an 
appointment for Tuesday afternoon to discuss the matter. When 
she opened the door at the appointed time, she said, “I have decided, 
as I should have done long ago.” 

The point already suggested is the vital fact to keep in mind in 
making an appointment. For two or three days the person is face 
to face with the necessity of having some sort of decision to make 
in answer to the expected appeal. And this means being face to 
face with God during the intervening days. The fact that an inter- 
view has been agreed to is of itself likely to make the individual 
conciliatory to the truth, more or less unconsciously, and the Holy 
Spirit has special access into that life, as meditation continues. The 
Spirit’s work, as considered in Study III, Sixth Day, convinces of 


86 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


sin and righteousness and judgment, and leads into the truth that 
makes us free, as indicated in John 16: 7-14. Instances could be 
multiplied to illustrate the value of this practice, as proved in actual 


experience, with all sorts of people. Let them agree to an appoint- © 


ment for an interview, and in most instances the will begins to 
yield to the Spirit of God. 


PRAYER: As Thine ambassador, O Lord, I go to win a hearing for 
Thy claims upon the allegiance of human lives. Therefore do 
Thou speak through me in OL the audience, as well as in the 
conversation. 


Third Day: Have Others Pray with You for the Individual 


In the emphasis of the place of prayer bands we have stressed 
the value of the prayer covenant. We now wish to apply this 
emphasis in urging the necessity for special prayer in order to 
prepare properly for the particular interview which has been 
arranged. This definite prayer will ask God’s help in your own 
preparation for the interview, and also that he will prepare the 
mind and heart and will of the individual to the point of a re- 
sponsive attitude. All that has been said in Study VII about taking 
God into account should be in mind. Paul may plant and Apollos 
may water (I Cor. 3: 6, 7), but God gives the increase. 

At this point we may secure entrance into a larger place in God’s 
available grace, for we have a special promise, in Matt. 18: 19, 20, 
“that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them.” Let it be recalled that the word 
translated ‘“‘agree” is the Greek word symphonize. It does not 
mean a mere casual agreement of two people to ask for some par- 
ticular thing. It means two lives symphonized in Christ, who 
is the key note in the orchestra, in whom all the instruments must 
be harmonized before there can be a symphony. Here is a chal- 
lenge to every believer to have a co-worker in prayer who will be 
ready to enter into covenants of special intercession as occasion may 
arise. Take God at his word, thus honoring him, resting upon his 
promises, as you pray for blessing in the special interview. 


——— eS ee ee 


HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE 87 


During our pastorate in an eastern city, an expert accountant 
was a regular attendant at the morning services. He was decidedly 
critical in his references to certain church members whom he had 
found to be “smooth” in their business methods. After hesitating 
for some time, in view of his known critical attitude, the constraint 
to speak to him became very definite. Grudgingly he agreed that 
we might call at his home to talk about Christ’s claim upon his 
open allegiance. He asserted that the interview would be a waste 
of time, but could not well refuse the request of his pastor to call 
at his own home. The appointment was made for three days ahead. 
Leaving his office we went directly to the home of one of God’s 
saints, who was accustomed to nothing less than audacity of faith 
in prayer. And God delights in just that, for it honors him to ask 
great things, when it is known that the petition is according to his 
will. We confessed that we had not been faithful, and that we had 
been a coward about speaking to this man, not cultivating a definite 
burden for his salvation. That day we had obeyed and had made 
an appointment. A covenant for special prayer was made, as we 
knelt together, continuing through the three days intervening. On 
the evening of the call, we telephoned to the friend, who promised 
to pray from eight until ten o’clock. 

On arriving at the home of the accountant, it was evident that 
he was greatly bored by the situation. But he was a gentleman and 
listened courteously. Never have we been more clearly conscious 
of the divine presence and power at work in a man’s life. Again 
and again one felt that it was not the human words that had effect, 
so much as the work of the Holy Spirit, as the unwilling man 
changed his attitude from point to point, until it was almost ten 
o'clock. Suddenly he said: “Yes, I never realized the sin in my 
life which makes it necessary for me to take Christ as my Saviour. 
I had been complacent in my moral conduct. Yes, I will take 
Christ.” We knelt together and asked God to complete the work 
he had begun. Without a doubt we attributed that experience to 
the prayer covenant with one who had the ear of the King, and 
with whom we had counted on God to do the work of transforming 
regeneration that he alone could accomplish in that man’s life. It 
is a fair inference that many an attempt is a failure because God is 
not counted upon as he must be if a true work of grace is to be 


88  ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


achieved. James declares (4: 2) that “ye have not because ye ask 
not.” He was writing to people who said their prayers every day, 
as we do. But James had reference to real asking, definite and 
specific, in expectant, confident faith in an available God, who is 
ever saying to men (Mal. 3: 10): “Prove me now herewith.” 


Prayer: Gracious Father of love and power, not willing that any 
should perish, O help me to be a laborer together with Thee in 
every attempt to be used of Thee in winning one and another to 
Christ. 


Fourth Day: Begin with a Confession of Unworthiness 


Probably the most common attitude of mind on the part of the 
average person who is an unbeliever, or a secret believer, is the 
feeling that he is quite as good as the average church member whom 
he knows. And it may often be true in so far as his daily living 
is concerned. It is frequently difficult for a casual observer to 
discover wherein some church members differ in their daily prac- 
tices from certain of their neighbors who make no profession of 
faith in Christ. In talking to all such, any manifestation of a 
feeling of superiority on the part of the Christian will not incline 
them to a sympathetic hearing, but will intensify the critical spirit. 
Any “holier-than-thou” manner, which is never justified in any 
circumstances, will be doubly fatal in an interview with these self- 
respecting moralists. 

Hence it is always well to begin the conversation with an 
emphasis of our own unworthiness, in so far as our human nature 
is concerned, apart from the grace of God. Was it not Baxter who 
said, as he saw a drunkard staggering across the street: “There 
goes Baxter but for the grace of God”? In the case of the account- 
ant mentioned in yesterday’s lesson, who was of this critical spirit, 
we began our conversation somewhat as follows: “Mr. S at 
coming to talk with you about confessing Christ and coming into 
the communion of the Church, let me say at the start that I do not 
presume to be any better man than yourself, in so far as my human 
nature is concerned. Let me also emphasize the fact that the 
Christian Church has no perfect people in it, but is made up of 
imperfect sinners, who hope in a Saviour who redeems us by his 





HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE 89 


grace, not because we deserve salvation, but because we confess 
our sins and, in honest penitence because of them, turn in faith to 
Christ as God’s anointed Saviour.” 

It was evident that the criticism, which seemed likely to be 
expressed, had been disarmed. There was nothing to justify its 
repetition after that confession. Moreover, we were at once face 
to face with man’s sin as the reason for his need of a Saviour, and 
with the fact that mere morality is not enough to enable a man 
to be at peace with God. The vital truth of Scripture to be 
emphasized in connection with the confession of every man’s 
unworthiness before God is that salvation is by grace alone. 
Many who are at once critical about church members, and fairly 
complacent about themselves, need to have this truth brought home. 
Use such Scripture for this emphasis as Eph. 2: 8-10, Col. 1: 3-6, 
II Thess. 2: 16, Rom. 3: 23-26, John 1: 17. 

Moreover, many Christians hesitate to speak to others just be- 
cause of this sense of unworthiness. They feel unworthy to repre- 
sent their Lord and fear that those to whom they would venture 
to speak might think so. But this confession makes it possible. A 
high school boy once wrote a letter to his chum in substance as 
follows: “Dear Bob—I have hesitated to speak to you about con- 
fessing Christ because I have not felt worthy to do so, for I believe 
you are a better boy than I am. I am sure you are a Christian at 
heart, and I know you would receive a great blessing if you would 
_ confess your faith and hope in Christ. I want you to have that 
blessing, and I hope you will come into the communion of the 
Church. Will you not think and pray about it?’ The Christian 
could not have sent that letter unless he had written his confession 
therein, and he always believed the confession influenced his friend 
to take the step, which he did at the next communion service. 


PRAYER: Empiy me of any sense of self-sufficiency, or Sself- 
amportance, O God, and help me to magmify Thy wonderful grace 
which Thou hast revealed to sinful men. 


Fifth Day: Find Every Possible Commun Ground 


One of the illuminating passages of Scripture bearing upon the 
subject of method in Christian approach to people is found in Acts 


go ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


17: 22-31. The Authorized Version is unfortunate in its transla- 
tion, as it tells us that Paul accused the Athenians of being “too 
superstitious.” That would have been a most tactless introduction 
indeed to those proud Athenians, who deemed themselves the intel- 
lectual superiors of all men. Paul had far more wisdom than that. 
The Revised Version gives us the correct story of what he said: 
“Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very re- 
ligious.” Let us keep in mind that people may be very religious, 
without being greatly concerned about morality. These are the 
very people who would be complimented by being called religious. 
Then Paul proceeded to say that he worshiped the same “Unknown 
God” that they worshiped. Moreover he knew that his Scriptures 
would have no authority for those Athenians, so he quoted one of 
their own poets in giving expression to a great truth, which his 
own Scriptures taught and which was admirably expressed by the 
Greek poet. They at once realized that he was not an ignorant 
man. 

Thus Paul came to common ground with his hearers at every 
possible point, until they were favorably disposed to listen to his 
message. Then he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. 
It has been said that Paul tried to be intellectual at Athens and that 
his visit there was a failure. There is no foundation for the 
statement, for we read that “certain men clave unto him and be- 
lieved,” though some mocked and others said they would hear 
again. Just the results that he always had, and that our Lord 
himself had. The method is vindicated in the experience of many. 
The writer was accompanying a gifted and saintly missionary in 
India as he conducted a street preaching service. After the service 
he said he had begun his sermon by quoting a sentence from the 
Bhagavad Gita, and then quoting an almost identical sentence from 
the words of Jesus, calling the attention of his hearers to the fact 
that they were so much alike. The people were at once interested. 
Jesus must have said some things worth hearing about, if he could 
approach the wisdom of their own sacred writings. He then, like 
Paul, led his hearers to a message of the truth as it is in Christ. 

The principle here stated involves another point of importance. 
One will be compelled at times to disagree with certain ex- 
pressed views of unbelievers touching fundamental subjects of 


HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE QI 


Christian faith. But there should be the constant effort to maintain 
as much common ground as possible. To do this one must guard 
earnestly against slipping away from points of agreement, or near- 
agreement, to differences of opinion about secondary and non-essen- 
tial details. Gently but faithfully seek to avoid departure from the 
big fundamentals of faith and life. Make the most possible of all 
that is hopeful in the other man’s view, pressing at this side or that 
until it conforms to the teaching of Scripture. In the nature of 
things there is less ground for disagreement when the big funda- 
mentals are kept to the fore. 


PRAYER: Give me an open mind to see the truth wherever found, 
O Spirit of the living God, who guides into all truth and who ever 
helps men who are “feeling after God, if haply they might find 
him.” 


Sixth Day: Discover His Degree of Faith 


One rule of supreme importance must always be put into im- 
mediate practice the moment anyone is willing to discuss the sub- 
ject of his attitude toward the claims of Christ. That rule is to 
discover, at the earliest possible moment, what he believes. Note 
how Jesus did this in the case of the man born blind, whom he had 
healed (John 9: 35-38). Never encourage a rehearsal of doubts 
and difficulties. Sometimes this cannot be avoided, but often it is 
unwittingly allowed when it is not necessary. Ground is always 
lost when a man is dwelling upon his doubts and questionings. 
Help him to realize that the pathway to growing strength in convic- 
tion is in the direction of clear belief, justified by facts, as over 
against doubts and uncertainties. Note how Jesus helped Martha 
to increase her faith at the grave of her brother (John 11: 25-27). 
Bismarck once said: “Tell me what you believe: I have doubts 
enough of my own.” The principle is valid. You might gather 
weeds from your garden forever, and have no harvest. Plant some 
seed, and fruitage will follow. 

Many people believe more than they realize. They have been 
looking away from their faith to negative matters of unbelief. 
Help them to discover how much they really do believe. A young 
physician came to the writer, declaring that in the medical college 


g2 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


he had lost his faith, that he did not know what to believe, but felt 
the need of some sort of an anchor that might help to stop his drift- 
ing. It was suggested that he begin with something that he could 
not doubt. With a cynical smile, he said: “Do you suppose there is 
anything I cannot doubt?” “Yes,” we replied, “you cannot doubt 
that the most important thing in the world is character. If there 
be any reality in life, character is the supreme value.” He was 
candid all the way along, and quickly said he was compelled to 
believe this statement to be true. He was urged to hold faithfully 
to this fundamental truth as a strong rock on which to build a 
positive, working faith. Then we suggested another fact that he 
could not doubt, namely, that Jesus Christ is the finest character 
the world has ever known. Thoughtfully he agreed again. “An- 
other big rock to stand upon. Hold to both of these. Moreover, 
there is a third thing you cannot doubt, if you will be honest with 
the evidence. You cannot doubt that Christ’s character is the 
daily incarnation of his own teaching about how to live.” He 
thought that statement through and said: “I believe it.” We then 
urged that if he would take Christ’s plain teachings for his own rule 
of daily living, in faithful obedience, he would begin to develop 
a character which would become more and more like Christ’s. This 
would be inevitable, as he came to realize the truth of Christ’s 
teaching about our relation to God and our fellowman. He ex- 
claimed: “That is what I want!” His rapid growth into increasing 
faith out of an increasing experience was inspiring to see. 

Some years ago we called on a young teacher, whose father was 
an agnostic. Her mother was a church member, but negative. 
The father had influenced her thinking. When asked as to her 
attitude toward the claims of Christ, she replied: “Why, I don’t 
believe in the supernatural.” Instead of beginning an argument on 
that subject, we asked: “Will you please tell me what you do 
believe?” Rather promptly she answered: “I believe that Jesus 
Christ was the best man that ever lived.” “Do you really believe 
that?’ we asked, in order to commit her to her definite statement. 
She reaffirmed her assertion. Then we said: “Miss D——, I have 
a book in my library entitled “The Christ of History.’ The author 
begins just where you say you stand, declaring that many earnest 
people believe that Christ was the best man that ever lived. Then 


HOW TO APPROACH PEOPLE 93 


he goes on to prove that Christ was more than that. Don’t you 
think you would like to read that book?” She said it did sound 
interesting. The next day the book was left at her door. 

Some seven weeks passed, during which she had attended the 
church services regularly. To our astonishment she came to us 
with the statement that she would like to be received into the 
Church, if we thought her ready. In answer to the question as to 
what had led her to such a decided change of attitude, she said: 
“That book had so many references to the New Testament that I 
had to examine it in order to see if the arguments were consistent. 
I had never studied the gospels before. What a silly thing I was 
to say that I did not believe in the supernatural, when I had given 
only a very superficial consideration to the subject! But I have 
just been devouring those wonderful gospels with a hungry heart. 
I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and I desire to confess 
him as my Lord.” It all came as a result of turning away from her 
negative position by asking the simple question that discovered 
her degree of faith. 


PraYER: Help me to hear Thee say, O Lord, “Fear not: only be- 
lieve,’ and to remember to encourage others to begin with such 
faith as they have tn building intelligent allegiance to the truth. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


There are exceptions to all rules; but it is believed that as one 
gains in actual experience in approaching people, with a view to 
winning them to Christ and the Church, the suggestions in this 
Study will be confirmed as wise. In the nature of things we must 
seek to predispose favorably all with whom we talk. It is equally 
evident that good psychology demands that we realize that people 
are always more interested in what they do believe, than in any 
question of doubt, even though they may have dropped into the ab- 
normal habit of talking more about their doubts than their faith. 

1. When is it necessary to study the individual to be won? 
What kinds of temperament are there? Name the next four things 
to discover in a person whom you may study. What two considera- 
tions are mentioned in dealing with one’s strong points? 

2. Why is it desirable to make an appointment with one who 


94 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


presents a problem? What special advantage results from having 
an interval between the time of making the appointment and the 
conversation itself? Tell the experience had with the bank clerk. 

3. What is the teaching about collective prayer in Matt. 18: 
19,20? What is the teaching in I Cor. 3:6, 7? Tell the story of 
the expert accountant and the prayer covenant made in connection 
with his case. 

4. What is the general feeling of people not in the Church as 
to their lives compared with those of church members? Why is it 
wise to begin conversation with such by making a confession of 
our own unworthiness? What was the substance of the statement 
made in beginning the conversation with the expert accountant? 
Name some of the passages given to emphasize that we are saved 
by grace, not by works. Tell the story of the high school boy who 
wrote a letter to his chum. 

5. How did Paul secure common ground in his sermon to the 
Athenians? What similar thing did the missionary in India do? 
How shall we maintain common ground, after finding a degree of 
it in conversation ? 

6. What is the first thing to do when one is willing to discuss 
the subject of personal faith? Tell the story of the young physi- 
cian. What statement does it illustrate? Tell the story of the 
young teacher who imagined that she did not believe in the super- 
natural. What helped her? 


PRAYER: Give me the wisdom that cometh down from above, O 
God, in approaching men for Thee, and help me ever to remember 
that Thou art waiting to do Thy work in their lives. 


STUDY IX 
PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 


First Day: Keep to the Positive Side 


Every fact in the realm of knowledge, however plain and mani- 
fest, is touched by a mystery that no man fully comprehends. On 
the other hand, there is no mystery so great, baffling human re- 
search, but what you will find touching it at some point a plain, 
undeniable fact. There are two ways of approaching the study of 
anything. One is to begin with the fact, accept the fact for all it is 
worth, and push along the line of the fact until you reach the 
mystery, which you will always do. Then never deny the fact 
because of the mystery; but by making more and more of the fact, 
push the mystery further back. The other way is to begin with the 
mystery and refuse to accept the fact until the mystery is solved. 
The first is the scientific method. All the progress in human 
knowledge has been realized by that method of procedure. The 
second method is unscientific and unreasonable, for it betrays un- 
willingness to be honest with facts. Such a position is hopeless 
for the individual and for the world. 

The greatest fact in the world is life. The greatest mystery in 
the world is life. The greatest life in the history of the world is 
Christ. What now shall we do with the fact of Christ, notwith- 
standing the mystery of Christ? If we be scientific, reasonable, 
honest, we will accept the fact of Christ, recognizing the value 
which has come to the world from the influence exerted by his life 
and teaching and redeeming love. We will hold tenaciously to this 
fact of Christ, with all that it is worth in untold blessings to men. 
We will adopt the laboratory method of modern science and put to 
the test his claims and promises, not by taking any other man’s 
statement, but by faithful experiment in our own lives, in order to 
prove whether he makes good. Thus we push the mystery of 
Christ further back; for we may challenge the world to produce the 
individual who has honestly tested Christ at every point who does 
not testify that he makes good. 


95 


96 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


It is not necessary to be able to explain a fact in order to be 
certain about it. No man can fully explain electricity; but we 
know it is an undeniable fact, and we enjoy its light and heat and 
power, making the most of the fact, while we push the mystery 
further back. So we need not understand all about Christ in order 
to secure and enjoy the blessings which he has made available for 
us. The man whom Jesus restored to sight (John 9: 25-38) could 
not explain how it was done; but he knew that whereas he had 
been blind he had his sight. He rested his faith in Christ upon the 
actual experience of his life. His method was strictly scientific. 
The same thing was true of the apostle Paul, who wrote to Timothy 
(II Tim. 1: 12), “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day.” They held to the positive side and built their 
faith in Christ. 

Nothing is more vital than this principle in dealing with those 
who are seeking the truth. Some years ago the writer was in 
Hong Kong, speaking under the auspices of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association to groups of Chinese and foreigners. Among 
them was a Mr. Cheong, who asked for an interview, saying that 
he could not seem to understand Christianity. He had studied in 
England and had lately secured an English Testament which he had 
begun to read. There were so many items he did not understand, 
references to people of past ages, and other points that were not 
clear. He had begun to underscore all these items that were not 
clear, and the book was getting rather black as a result. If only 
some one would take the time to explain all these items, perhaps 
he could get light. We asked: “Mr. Cheong, why do you want 
light? Is it to satisfy your curiosity about mysteries? Or is it to 
live by the light?” With some emotion he replied that when in 
England he had become convinced that Christianity must be the 
true religion. He felt that if he could understand it, he might help 
his people, especially the young men. 

Assuring him that we could help him, and by a better method 
than explaining all the things he had underscored, we urged him 
to get another Testament and read carefully through the four 
gospels and the Acts underscoring everything he did understand, 
everything that was clear, and whenever he came to anything not 


PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 97 


quickly understood, to pass it by without a moment’s delay. “Con- 
tinue underscoring what is clear. After you have read these five 
books through, read them a second time, and you will underscore 
more than at the first reading. Then read them again the third 
time, and you will find still more that is clear. Do this, and you 
will know what it means to be a Christian, for the Holy Spirit will 
guide you into the truth.” He agreed. Day after day he would 
come into the Association saying that he was getting light and more 
light. He came fully into the light and became an earnest Chris- 
tian, proving most helpful to the young men in south China. 


PRAYER: Help me ever to turn toward the light, rather than to 
ponder mysteries, and guide me, O God, into the light that leads to 
life eternal. 


Second Day: Make Plain Our Need of Christ 


In the first Study we set forth some simple illustrations to make 
clear beyond question man’s need of a Saviour from sin and its fatal 
results. The main reason why so many people are indifferent about 
their relation to Jesus Christ is that they fail to realize their need 
of Him. A striking study which illustrates our need of divine help 
is found in Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus (John 3: I-21). 
It is evident that Nicodemus was one of those mentioned in John 
2: 23, 24, who believed that Jesus was a prophet, but to whom 
“Jesus did not commit himself.” Nicodemus came to see whether 
Jesus could prove to him that he was the Messiah. The fact that 
Jesus responded would indicate that Nicodemus was sincere at 
heart, though presuming to be the judge to decide as to the standing 
of Jesus. 

But the conversation took a most unexpected turn. Instead of 
discussing Jesus, it was turned toward Nicodemus, to make him 
realize his own great spiritual need. So some people today have 
an idea that they are doing the Church quite a favor when they 
attend its services and contribute toward its support. They have 
never realized their need of Christ. Nicodemus had no question 
about his own security as a child of Abraham. But he was startled 
by the unexpected words of Jesus, as the Master cut from under 
his feet every human confidence in outward living: “Verily, verily, 


98 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God.” 

Nicodemus was not born again, and he knew it, fine as he was 
morally. Moreover he was honest enough not to try to defend 
himself as being under the covenant of Jehovah, as a child of 
Abraham. His questions show how hard it is for a man of intel- 
lectual pride, and accustomed to being considered a leading citizen 
by his neighbors, to become as a little child in the humility of an 
honest confession of his sin, and the acknowledgment of his need 
of divine help. Christ made plain to Nicodemus God’s provision, 
in a wonderful love, for man’s salvation by sending his Son to be 
our Saviour. He then laid the responsibility upon Nicodemus to 
make his own decision as to what he would do in view of God’s 
offered salvation, in those personal words, which also apply to us, 
“that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.’ Urge any man who is not ready to admit his need 
to read the gospels. The historic place which Christianity has 
made for itself will always justify this appeal. 

Point out the fact that through the centuries man has proved 
his inability to save himself. Never compromise with this funda- 
mental truth. Many cults today are seeking to present some other 
way than the way of the New Testament. But of all such the 
Lord of life has said (John Io: 1, 9), “Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but 
climbeth up some other way, [trying in vain to get in], the same is 
a thief and a robber. .. . I am the door: by me if any man enter 
in, he shall be saved.” The apostle Peter faced the rulers of the 
Jews, in their self-sufficiency, and exclaimed, Acts 4: 12: “Neither 
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” The world 
needs this emphasis today. 


PRAYER: Help me to magnify my dependence upon Thee, O 
Master, so that I shall be doubly earnest in pressing the truth upon 
every soul that in Thee alone we have hope for eternal life. 


Third Day: Be Honest about the Fatality of Sin 


These principles of procedure may not all be demanded in any 


PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 99 


one case, nor in any particular order. They are to be kept in mind 
as we deal with those who are out of Christ and the Church. Some- 
times the individual will be one who has come to a place where he 
knows he cannot cover his sin even from the eyes of men. Many 
are not concerned about the fact that they are sinning in the sight 
of God, so long as they think men do not know. Many will tell 
you they “never did anything very bad,’ thus making it evident 
that they are not honest about their sin and will not face its 
fatal consequences. Although God has said (Gen. 2: 17), “In the 
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”; yet they listen 
to that old lie of the devil (Gen. 3: 4), “Ye shall not surely die.” 
There is but one alternative; unless sin is fatal, there is no need of 
a Saviour. 

Recently we heard a church member make the statement that 
certain Jews whom he knew were very good Christians. Upon 
inquiry it appeared that what he meant was that in their daily life 
they were as ethical as the Christians he knew. What he really 
meant was that they were good citizens, just as some good Moham- 
medans might be. That man had no conception of the fatality of 
sin, for he evidently thought of sin as the overt acts which human 
law condemned, without taking into account the sin of self-will that 
refuses to acknowledge God’s place in a man’s life. Paul states the 
case very plainly in Rom. 8: 5-8, “They that are after the flesh do 
mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the 
things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be 
spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is 
enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please 
God.” Add to this the statement of Christ in John 17: 3, “This is 
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Without this personal knowledge of 
God in Christ, the only possible end of the earthly life is spiritual 
death, as well as the death of the body. 

It is very difficult for many to believe this. They know so many 
people who are nice and kind and honest, who are utterly indiffer- 
ent to religious matters. Ask them about the attitude of these 
people toward Christ, and they will look as if the question were 
entirely unnecessary. Ask them about the prayer life of these 


Iio0 = ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


people, and they would smile, quite unable to understand the 
spiritual poverty thus revealed. So long as they are having a 
good time on earthly levels, and succeeding in business, they have | 
only the vaguest notion of the fact that they are starving in the 
realm of their spiritual possibilities. Nor is this so surprising, 
since there are so-called Christian leaders today who smile at the 
idea of our needing Christ in order to solve the sin problem. They 
tell us the old-fashioned idea of a vicarious atonement is out of 
date. They are blind leaders of the blind, whose teaching has led 
more than one person known to the writer to make shipwreck of 
faith, Of course all such leaders are not interested in soul 
winning. Were the Church to look to them for spiritual quicken- 
ing, there would never be another genuine revival of true religion 
with saving power, such as past years have known when the first 
constant emphasis has been the fact and fatality of sin. | 


PRAYER: Help every soul to realize Thy teaching, O God, that 
“the human heart is decesttful and desperately wicked,’ until we 
cry: “God be merciful to me a sinner!’ May Thy Holy Spirit 
make clear to us the truth that all else in life 1s vain, if we be with- 
out Christ and his salvation. 


Fourth Day: Testify to Christ’s Work of Grace in Your 

Own Life 

Nothing so strongly convinces people of the reality of Christ’s 
saving and transforming power as the actual evidence revealed in 
the changed life of a man who was known to be living in indiffer- 
ence to God—either a life of open sin, or of persistent self-will— 
and who has forsaken that old life, having given himself to Jesus 
Christ as his divine Saviour, thereafter devoting his time, strength, 
brains, and money to the advancement of Christ’s cause among men. 
Phillips Brooks was right when he said: “The great argument is 
not a syllogism: it is a man.’ When the apostles had been appre- 
hended for healing a man, their defense could not be gainsaid, for 
we read in Acts 4: 14, “And beholding the man which was healed 
standing with them, they could say nothing against it.” This is 
one reason why God has been able to use so mightily the testimony 
of such men as Jerry McAuley and Harry Monroe. Their trans- 


PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 101 


formed lives were the final proof of the power of Jesus Christ 
to save and keep those whom he had lifted out of the pit. 

The principle obtains in the life of every Christian who has had a 
real work of grace in his heart. In every such case a personal 
testimony as to what Christ has meant to you will be the most effec- 
tive attempt you can make to win others to him. Many of the 
people whom you will meet will have had much the same environ- 
ment that you have had, and they will be susceptible to your testi- 
mony. Some years ago a man went to an Easter service. It was his 
custom to go to church once a year to please his wife. On that 
Easter day the message was used of God to touch his conscience in 
view of his indifference to religious matters. He came again and 
soon became a regular attendant. He had been a fine man morally, 
honest in business, loving and faithful in his home, attractive in 
appearance and courteous in manner; but he had been Godless and 
Christless, giving no thought to them and feeling no need of 
doing so. After about a year he became a most earnest Christian, 
active in the whole life of the Church. He had been a Christian 
for three years, when he made this testimony: 

“Four years ago I was forty years old. I had been fairly success- 
ful in business and was generally respected as a good citizen. I 
was happy in my home and felt that I needed nothing more to make 
life desirable. As to religion, I thought it was largely a combina- 
tion of sentiment and will power, which one could have without 
going to church. So far as I could see, church members were very 
much like myself, and I had not the slightest sense of needing any- 
thing. But during those first months that I came to church I 
discovered that my whole life was a failure, so far as my immortal 
soul was concerned. I had constantly refused to give heed to an 
occasional sting of conscience when questions about my future 
arose. Three years ago I accepted Christ, and I am utterly amazed 
to realize the complete change in my life. Possibly a casual ob- 
server would not notice anything different about me from what he 
saw four years ago, for my practice in business has not changed; 
but my family and my close friends know the difference. For now 
we have a family altar in my home, and my wife and children 
hear the voice of prayer every day, where they never heard it 
before. Now Christ is at the heart of my business and my constant 


102 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


friend in everything. I cannot understand how I ever got along so 
complacently without him.” 

This man was winning others to Christ through that testimony, 
and bringing more than one friend and neighbor, formerly equally 
indifferent, into the fellowship of Christ and the Church. 


PRAYER: Let me hear Thee saying to me, as Thou didst tu one 
of old whom Thou didst save, “Go home to thy friends, and tell 
them how great sates the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had 
compassion on thee.” ; 


Fifth Day: Emphasize Christ’s Rightful Claim upon Our 
Lives 


This particular appeal is to be made to that very large body of 
people who claim to believe and hope in Christ, but who have never 
given open allegiance to him by publicly confessing their faith and 
entering into the communion of the Church. We have this class 
mentioned in John 12: 42, 43: “Among the chief rulers also many 
believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess 
him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved 
the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Many secret 
believers today will not admit that this same explanation is applic- 
able to their case; but the fact remains that in all such cases of 
unwillingness to be out-and-out for Christ, the reason will be found 
in their relations with men as contrasted with their relations to God. 

Naturally the same considerations which have been mentioned in 
realizing the claim of Christ upon our own allegiance will have 
place as we press his claim upon every other life. One of the finest 
motives that can be urged upon a hesitant soul is the incentive to 
enter as fully as possible into Christ’s plan for his own life, in order 
that God may use him in making his influence upon others the finest 
possible. In the case of fathers and mothers, their responsibility 
for the young lives that God has entrusted to them to shape for 
eternity should be most earnestly urged in persuading them to main- 
tain right relations with God, in order that they may be true to their 
trust. We have noted the appeal for allegiance to a great cause 
that swept through the land when our men enlisted. It was then 
that those who willingly evaded their obligation and privilege were 


PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 103 


counted “slackers.” It is not a nice word, nor one we would desire 
to have applied to us; but just exactly this point should be cour- 
ageously, though kindly, pressed home to all who profess to have 
accepted Christ’s salvation and yet hesitate to be loyal to him and 
his cause, as it challenges us to be enlisted under his banner. 

But the vital obligation goes deeper. It is suggested in the story 
of the Egyptian slave who was eager to serve his newly-found 
redeemer all the rest of his life, and counted this service his highest 
liberty. How can any intelligent soul catch a vision of what the 
Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, and be lethargic about loyalty 
to him and all that he holds dear? Quietly call attention to the fact 
that he left his throne in glory in order to bring salvation to us, 
going to his cross to make atonement for our sin, and now is ever 
making intercession for us at the throne of God. The Holy Spirit 
will bless this faithful effort to lift up Christ before men. Quote 
Paul’s burning words in explanation of his own quenchless ardor 
in the Master’s service, as found in II Cor. 5: 14, 15, “For the love 
of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died 
for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they who 
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which 
died for them, and rose again.” 


Prayer: May I not be ashamed to show my colors everywhere 
and always, O Christ. May I be eager to be known as Thy follower 
and to be used of Thee in helping others to find the way of life. 


Sixth Day: Use God’s Word to Meet Special Points 


Christ’s practice of this principle is the familiar fact in the 
gospel record. His followers should learn to use the Word of God 
as he used it. In his temptation, Matt. 4: 1-11, he was always 
ready to meet the suggestion of the tempter, from point to point, 
with the words, “It is written,” and to state some phase of the truth 
that put the tempter to flight. In urging his claim to be the true 
Messiah, he quoted the words of David, in Psalm 110: 1, “The Lord 
said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine 
_ enemies thy footstool.” David was their greatest hero, and Christ 
reminded them that David spoke by the Holy Spirit, as is declared 
in II Sam. 23: 2. This appeal was final, The leaders could not 


104 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


answer him, though they hated him the more; but we read that 
“the common people heard him gladly.” 

Moreover, when the lawyer questioned him as to how he might 
inherit eternal life (Luke 10: 25-28), Christ did not simply use 
the Scriptures in his answer; he put the question to the lawyer 
himself as to what was the teaching. This method is often effec- 
tive. Ask the person to find the text for himself, or hand it to him 
and ask him to read it. It is at once evident that this simple act 
will deepen the impression of the truth. Especially should the use 
of Scripture be practiced vigorously when one is ready to accept 
the authority of the Bible. Some are not willing to do this. A 
young lawyer once said to the writer that he saw no superiority in 
the Scriptures that would justify him in accepting them as his au- 
thority. He was told that he was described in I Cor. 2: 14. He 
reached for a Bible on the desk near by, turned to the passage, and 
read, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God.” He looked both surprised and convicted. He was the 
same lawyer mentioned in a former study who would not admit, 
at first, that he was lost; but who afterwards realized his need and 
accepted Christ. 

Several years ago, when the writer was a student in the city of 
Cincinnati, Mr. Moody was holding meetings there. Some of us 
were helping in various ways, and the writer witnessed the follow- 
ing incident. At one of the after-meetings a lady remained, saying 
to Mr. Moody that she had tried his Christianity and it had not done 
her a bit of good. Mr. Moody said: “Do you mean to say that 
you have been trying for some days to do the will of God and 
have had no blessing?” She asserted that she had. After a 
moment’s thought, Mr. Moody asked if she would be willing to 
kneel with him and repeat the words of a prayer. She did so, and 
he began the words of the Lord’s Prayer. She followed him until 
he came to—“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” 
which she did not repeat. Rather brusquely Mr. Moody asked: 
“Well, can’t you say it?” She arose, saying: “Do you mean to 
tell me that I must forgive that woman before I can be a Chris- 
tian?’ She seemed honestly surprised, evidently not realizing the 
necessity. 

Very earnestly Mr. Moody answered: “My dear Madam, I do not 


PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE 105 


say so; but God says so.” Then he turned quickly to Matt. 18: 
21-35, and read the parable of the servant whose Lord had for- 
given him “that great debt,’ who refused in turn to forgive his 
fellow-servant, who owed him a hundred pence. He read it very 
effectively. The woman was growing pale as he proceeded. When 
he finished with those startling words, “So shall also my heavenly 
Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from 
your hearts,” he turned the book around and said: “That is your 
photograph.” Sinking upon her knees, the woman exclaimed: “Oh, 
I never saw my sin before! Oh, if God will only forgive me, I will 
forgive everything!’ Then Mr. Moody said kindly: “Well, you 
may get up then.” She arose smiling through her tears. It all 
came from Mr. Moody’s being able to say so definitely: “I do not 
say so; but God says so.” 


PRAYER: Help us to realize that Thy Word is sharper than any 
two-edged sword, O God of truth, and that tt will be blessed of Thee 
when we use tt as Thy final authority for men. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


These principles will come to be familiar as one practices the 
application of them in personal work. Emphasize to yourself 
specially the suggestion of depending upon God’s Word in pressing 
your points. Remember his promise by the word of the Prophet 
Isaiah (55: 11), “My word ... shall not return unto me void, but 
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the 
thing whereto I sent it.” 

1. What is said about facts as related to mysteries? What is 
the scientific method of approaching the study of anything? How 
do these statements apply to Christ? What two men are men- 
tioned as having a reasonable faith? Tell the story of the young 
Chinaman finding the light. 

2. Why are people indifferent about the subject of salvation? 
What was the thought of Nicodemus in coming to Christ? How 
did Christ turn the conversation? How does this incident apply 
to the modern moralist? What is the record of man’s failure to 
save himself? What was Peter’s statement to the rulers about 
their need of Christ? 


106 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


3. What attitude do many people maintain about their sins? 
What did the church member mean who called certain Jews good 
Christians? What statement of Paul is quoted here? What 
dangerous teaching is given out by so-called Christian leaders 
today? 

4. What statement of Phillips Brooks is quoted at this point? 
What is the special value of a personal testimony? Tell the story 
of the man who attended an Easter service, describing him before 
and after he became a Christian. 

5. To what class of people should we emphasize Christ’s claim 
upon their lives? What considerations formerly mentioned to lead 
us to recognize Christ’s claim will apply in our efforts to lead 
others to him? What is the deeper obligation? What statement 
of Paul is quoted here? 

6. Mention instances where Christ used the Scriptures to meet 
different points in his experience. How was the lawyer answered 
who said he did not accept the authority of the Scriptures? Tell 
the story of the conversation of Mr. Moody with the woman who 
had not forgiven a neighbor. What parable did he use from God’s 
Word? What was the explanation of the success of that inter- 
view? 


PRAYER’: In connection with the use of all methods, and benefiting 
by the experience of others, help me, O Lord, ever to seek the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, who guides us into all truth. 


STUDY X 
SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO COMMON EXCUSES 


First Day: Excuses Born of Fear 


1. “I am too great a sinner.” There are those who find it diffi- 
cult to believe that salvation is for them. Their recognition of 
their sin is a hopeful fact to begin with, for they are more likely to 
respond to the truth than the indifferent. The message for them 
is Heb. 7: 25, where we are taught that Christ is “able to save them 
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth 
to make intercession for them.” Point them to the case of Saul of 
Tarsus (I Tim. 1: 13-15), who counted himself one of the worst 
of sinners, yet who was gloriously saved. Stress Christ’s own 
words about coming to publicans and sinners because they needed 
him, as recorded in Matt. 9: 11-13. Specially call attention to 
“whosoever,” as we have it in Rom. 10: 13 and also in John 3: 16. 
Ask if they believe in Christ. If so, the promise is theirs. 

In every case emphasis must be laid upon the necessity of sincere 
repentance of sin. True repentance always means readiness to 
forsake the sin. Only thus may one hope to be accepted by Christ 
in the sincerity of faith that turns to him as the Saviour from sin. 
Have them read such helpful promises as Isa. 1: 18 and Isa. 55: 7; 
also the encouraging passages in Luke 18: 13, 14 and Rom. 5: 6-11. 
Point them to “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world,” (John 1: 29), and to I John 1: 9, where we are told how 
we may be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Christ teaches that 
whatever the past may have been, anyone who will may come now, 
and in John 6: 37, he makes that all-sufficient promise, “Him that 
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” 

2. “I cannot hold out.’ Help such a one to turn away from 
looking at himself, insufficient in his weakness, to the living God 
who is able to save and keep. Our salvation does not depend on 
us, but on him. In the very power of God, Christ promises the 


107 


108 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


divine keeping power, in John 10: 27, 28. Note Paul’s assurance 
in Phil. 1: 6, born of experience that Christ does keep. Peter also 
speaks out of a like experience in I Peter 1: 5, “kept by the power 
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the 
last time.” | 

Further emphasize the teaching that God will never forsake his 
believing children, as in Isa. 41: 10 and in II Cor. 12: 9, where 
grace sufficient is always made available for us, whatever our need. 
Read I Cor. 10: 13, with its special assurance of grace to keep 
through every temptation, also Jude 24, which magnifies God’s 
power to keep and save. Mention well-known cases of people who 
were down in sin who have been saved, such as John Bunyan and 
others. 


Prayer: Lord, give me to realize the sinfulness of every human 
heart, and to remember that since Thou hast saved me Thou canst 
save everyone. 


Second Day: Excuses Born of Self-Complacency 


1. “I am satished with myself as I am.’ People of this type 
need to be shaken out of their complacency. Self is unduly exalted, 
where no sense of need is admitted. Point to God’s warnings in 
Jer. 13: 9, 10. Tell them frankly that they are not honest about 
their sins, and know it. Have them read Rom. 3: 10-12, 23, “there 
is none righteous, no, not one’... “all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God.” Recall Christ’s plain words in John 
3: 3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God.” Show them by John 3: 18-21, that they are condemned 
already because of their unbelief, which is of itself a fatal sin, as 
taught in John 16: 8, 9, and emphasized in the startling words of 
Heb. 10: 28-31. Point to Christ’s teaching that if they are not 
serving God purposefully they are serving the devil (Matt. 6: 24). 
Show how Rom. 6: 23 teaches that their case is hopeless unless 
they accept Christ as their Saviour. 

2. “I am as good as most church members.” In Study VIII we 
referred to those who have this feeling, and suggested that it may 
be disarmed if we begin with a confession of the unworthiness of 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO EXCUSES 109 


ourselves, and of all other believers, who trust in a God who saves 
penitent sinners by his grace. Repeat this statement whenever one 
returns to this excuse. Remind them that when Christ said to 
Peter: “Follow me” (John 21: 19), Peter turned to John and said: 
“Lord, and what shall this man do?” To which Jesus answered: 
“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” No man can stand 
before God at the judgment, and excuse his failure to take Christ 
on the ground of any other person’s failure. Recall Paul’s state- 
ment in Rom. 14: 12, “So then every one of us shall give account of 
himself to God.” No man is good enough to claim salvation (Rom. 
3: 23); hence only those who confess and repent of their sin have 
any ground to hope that they may be saved (Eph. 2: 8, 9, and I 
John 1: 7-9). The believer’s hope rests on the divine grace 
wherein he stands (Rom. 5: 1-10 and Phil. 3: 7-14). 


PRAYER: Empty me of self, O God, and help me to realize my 
nothingness apart from thee. Then give me grace to believe in 
Thy redeenung love, revealed in Christ, and joyfully to turn from 
self to Him. 


Third Day: Excuses Born of Indifference 


1. “I do not feel like it.’ This widespread spirit of indifference 
is very prevalent. It is the spirit of complacency intensified. All 
having this spirit must be brought to see that indifference is itself a 
fatal sin, when it comes to ignoring the claims of Christ. Stress 
the fact that no man’s feelings will serve him when he stands before 
God in the judgment. Ask them to read Rom. 2: I-II, with its 
severe indictment. Have them also read Acts 17: 30, 31, where 
God calls on all men to repent. Hold them to the question in Heb, 
2: 3, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” 
Press them for an answer to that question. 

2. “Not today: some other day.” Thousands yield to this com- 
mon temptation: There is no hurry about it; time enough yet. This 
is one of the most subtle and successful of all temptations. But in 
II Cor. 6: 2 we learn that now is God’s accepted time. No man 
knoweth what a day may bring forth (Prov. 27: 1). Emphasize 
again the teaching in Heb. 2: 3, that neglect is fatal, if persisted in. 


110 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Press the appeal in Isa. 55: 6, 7, to seek the Lord while he may be 
found, also that in Heb. 3: 15, “Today if ye will hear his voice, 
harden not your hearts.” Call attention also to Prov. 11: 7, “When 
a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish.” Trust the Holy 
Spirit to do his work, using these truths as his instrument (John 
16: 8-11), and to bring conviction to the indifferent. 


PRAYER: Lord forbid that I should be like Gallio, who “cared for 
none of these things,” and help me to measure the meaning of my 
life so as to be determined, by thy grace, to realize as far as 
possible Thy plan for me. 


Fourth Day: Excuses Born of a Critical Spirit 


1. “There are too many hypocrites in the Church.’ This is a 
somewhat different attitude from that of the complacent man who 
counts himself as good as the average church member. This spirit 
indicates more of antagonism to the claims of the Church. For all 
such the truth to stress is that the first consideration is not church 
membership, but Pilate’s question (Matt. 27: 22), “What shall I do 
then with Jesus, which is called Christ?” Follow this with Christ’s 
question in John 9: 35, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” 
The supreme matter is the individual’s relation to Jesus Christ. 
Press him for an answer to these two questions. 

Sometimes it is effective to say frankly that a person must be 
very close to a hypocrite in order to hide behind one. Paul strikes 
at that attitude very pointedly in Rom. 14: 10, 13. He also presses 
the vital fact (II Cor. 5: 10) that “we must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things 
done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good 
or bad.” Emphasize again the teaching in Rom. 2: 1-3 that the 
very thing we condemn in others is in our own sinful hearts if 
Christ has never been given his place there. No less searching is 
the passage in Matt. 7: 1-5, where we are warned not to judge, lest 
we be judged; and first to consider the beam in our own eye, before 
we seek to indicate the mote in our brother’s eye. 

2. “The Church is not truly Christian.’ Here we have a gen- 
eral accusation against the Church, which is a widespread opinion 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO EXCUSES III 


entertained by multitudes who feel that the Church has no special 
interest in their welfare. In the ranks of labor many insist that an 
entirely new social order must come before the teachings of Christ 
will be realized. For most of these people, while they hiss the 
mention of the Church, cheer the name of Christ. They claim 
that Christ’s teachings condemn the present economic policy main- 
tained in the industrial world, and that most of those who are the 
industrial and social autocrats are in the Church and honored there, 
mainly because of their wealth. Moreover they point out that these 
industrial leaders have been complacent about the unchristian condi- 
tions, trying to do nothing to make them better, more just and 
humane, and that the Church has done little or nothing to preach 
the principles of Jesus as touching these things. 

The first thing to say to this criticism is that it is largely justified 
by the facts. With absolute frankness we must admit the miserable 
failure of Christian men to apply their Christianity at this point of 
industrial injustice. Selfishness has been winking at the spirit of 
greed, while thousands of our fellowmen have been housed in dwel- 
lings utterly unfit for them to live in. It will be helpful to mention 
Christ’s teaching that private property should be devoted to the 
public good, as in the two stories of rich men, in Luke 18: 
19-25 and in Luke 12: 13-21. Stress the fact that while the leaders 
opposed Christ, “the common people heard him gladly.” 

Having sought thus frankly and fairly to find a common ground 
with these people, it should be emphasized that there are many 
Christian churches established in the midst of these laboring 
classes, revealing the spirit of Christ in their desire and effort to 
minister to the needs of those in the neighborhood, whether those 
needs be physical, mental, or spiritual. But it should especially be 
stressed that these churches seek always first of all to minister to 
the spiritual needs of these immortal souls. Then the fact must be 
earnestly insisted upon that the personal relation of the individual 
to Jesus Christ is the only solution to all these social and economic 
problems. Not only the economic leaders, but just as surely every 
class of people, must give Christ place, or the differences that exist 
will never be obliterated. By just so much as the Church needs 
changing, these factors must give expression to their loyalty to 
Christ and his cause by coming into the communion of the churches 


112 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


and helping them to realize the Christ spirit of true brotherhood 
among all believers. 


Prayer: Help me to realize, O Lord, that salvation is always an 
individual question before 1t can involve a better social order. 


Fifth Day: Excuses Involving Experience 


1. Waiting for some wonderful experience. There are some 
secret believers who honestly think they should not confess Christ 
openly by coming into the communion of the Church, because they 
have not had the same sort of remarkable experience that some 
one else had whom they have known. But the experiences that 
accompany conversion are by no means all alike. It is true that 
Paul had a sudden and wonderful and radical experience (Acts 
9: 1-22). It was largely so because of Paul’s position and practice 
previous to his coming face to face with Christ. He was hotly 
antagonistic to this new faith, persecuting all who confessed Christ, 
and consenting to the death of Stephen, one of the new Christians. 
Necessarily it meant a thorough change in his whole life for him to 
become a follower of the Christ he had hated. 

In contrast we have the record of the conversion of Andrew and 
John, as described in John 1: 29-42. They were disciples of 
John the Baptist, and among those who were looking for the coming 
Messiah, whom John was foretelling. Hence when John pointed 
them to Jesus as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world,” they needed very little change of attitude as they turned and 
followed Jesus. It was ten o’clock in the morning, and they spent 
the rest of that day with him. Think how he led them into the 
light, explaining all that he told Nicodemus, about the need of the 
new birth and drawing them to him in a splendid allegiance. For 
when they left him, they immediately went out and found their 
brothers and brought them to Jesus. 

So the experience of the jailer at Philippi (Acts 16: 23-34) was 
an earthquake experience in more senses than one. It also would 
necessarily be a radical transformation of his entire thinking and 
conduct. But the conversion of Lydia at the seaside (Acts 16: 
12-15) was a different experience, a quiet work of grace, but none 
the less real. Keeping always in mind that the regenerating work 


“SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO EXCUSES 113 


of the Holy Spirit takes place in the life of every believer, and that 
there is much in common in every genuine conversion; yet these 
differing experiences are naturally explained by antecedent condi- 
tions. To every hesitant soul, who waits for some unusual experi- 
ence, urge that he only needs to accept Christ’s plain invitation to 
come unto him, as in Matt. 11: 28, and his promise in John 6: 37, 
“him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Follow this 
with his precious promise in Matt. 10: 32, “Whosoever therefore 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father which is in heaven.” 

2. Fearful of inconsistencies. One will also find honest be- 
lievers who are conscious of their weaknesses, who hesitate to unite 
with the Church in the fear that their weaknesses might prove a 
stumbling block to some who are watching church members in order 
to judge of the value of the Christian life. They are all the more 
concerned because they know how the palpable inconsistencies of 
church members have hindered the cause of Christ. Most earn- 
estly should we seek to help such hesitant souls. The answer to 
this attitude is given in Paul’s statement in Phil. 3: 12-14, “Not as 
though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I 
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I also am ap- 
prehended of Christ Jesus.” The Revised Version properly trans- 
lates it, “That I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold 
on by Christ Jesus,” namely, eternal life. 

The noun of that verb “apprehend” is the word apprentice, and 
what Paul asserts in fact, and in the spirit of the entire passage, 
is that the Christian is an apprentice. Think what this means. An 
apprentice does not hesitate to begin his work for fear he may make 
some mistakes, or because he still has much to learn. He knows his 
hope is in becoming an apprentice at once, for thus he puts himself 
under his Master, and only as he does this has he any reason to hope 
that some day he may become masterful. Hence his liability to 
mistakes is all the more reason why he should immediately become 
an apprentice in the training school of Christ. The Church is such 
a school. It is not the end, but a means to the great end of growing 
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, and becoming more like 
him. Remind such of the promises in Phil. 1: 6, and in Col 3: 


23, 24. 


114 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Prayer: Help me to remember, O Lord, that in the olden days, 
men who put their faith in Thee have ths record, “Out of weak- 
ness they were made strong.” 


Sixth Day: Excuses Involving Conduct 


1. Unwilling to give up some things for Christ. At first thought 
we might have the opinion that this is specially true of young 
people; but it is none the less true of many who are older. No 
one can ponder earnestly the alarming increase of the spirit of 
worldliness in the Church of Christ without realizing that until 
a new consecration finds place in the lives of professing Christians, 
God cannot use us to be his witnesses in the supreme task of win- 
ning souls to Christ. The atmosphere of the discussion of this 
subject is so illusive, and the temptations are so subtle, that one 
may well go to God in earnest prayer for divine guidance. Surely 
we must have in mind, as we study the subject, those lives in which 
God had his full right of way, such as the apostle Paul, who tells us 
in Acts 24: 16 how he strives “to have always a conscience void of 
offence toward God and toward men.” Recall the suggestions in 
Study II about a surrendered life and the problem of self-denial. 

It costs something to be a Christian; but it costs far more not 
to be. The pity of it is that many are so weak in the face of the 
immediate satisfaction of lower desires, that they do not allow the 
higher values of the spirit to hold them to the higher level. The 
explanation of this is in the fact that they do not look beyond self, 
in the times of temptation, to Christ himself for guidance and 
strength. Read Christ’s words in Mark 8: 36, 37, where he 
measures the relative values of the two kinds of life. The pleasures 
of sin and self are of short duration, as compared with the endless 
joys of the redeemed. Read Paul again in Phil. 3: 7-11, also Heb. 
I1: 24-27, where we read that Moses chose rather to suffer with his 
people than to be the king of the mightiest empire of his day. 
Consider that choice and its consequences, not only in his own life, 
but also in the life of the world. No one can tell what God has 
in store for any one of us who is willing to give God full place in 
his life. 

Some things may not be sins, but will be “weights,” as suggested 
in Heb. 12: 1,2. They hinder the best progress of the Christian in 


Ses 
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SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO EXCUSES 115 


the life that seeks ever to do the will of God with heartiest loyalty, 
cost what it may. Some one has said that only border-line Chris- 
tians ever raise these border-line questions. When Dr. Maltbie 
Babcock was pastor of the Brick Church, New York City, a lady 
sent him some tickets to the opera. He was a gifted musician and 
composer, and a great lover of music; yet he returned the tickets 
with thanks, saying he could not use them. The lady felt some- 
what indignant, as if her practice of attending the opera had been 
condemned by her pastor. She went to see him about it. He 
quietly told her he did not sit in judgment on anyone else. He then 
told her of an operation he had witnessed at the hospital recently, 
where the physicians and nurses had taken every possible precau- 
tion to be thoroughly aseptic, lest by the slightest carelessness blood 
poisoning might endanger the life of the patient. He asked her: 
“Do you think they did right to be so careful?” She replied: “Most 
certainly! Anything less would have been criminal.” Then he 
gently said: “My dear friend, I am a surgeon of souls. If the 
conduct of the operators at the hospital is right, and anything less 
would have been criminal, you will quickly understand how I feel 
about doing the least thing that might influence a weak soul who 
might be looking to me for an example. I have thought of every- 
thing that people say to justify themselves in doing this or that; 
but as for myself, I cannot run the risk. ‘For their sakes I sanctify 
myself,’ trying to do so in the spirit of my Master. That is all.” 
She was silent a moment, then rose to go. There were tears in her 
eyes. She had no answer to make. She was thankful that she had 
that kind of a pastor. That is the highest ground. There is no 
possible reply to it. Would that every Christian would take only 
the highest ground; but alas! thousands choose lower levels. 

2. Hindered by business or social connections. The writer 
has known several people who felt they could not consistently unite 
with the Church because of the character of their business. In 
some instances a family depended upon the individual who was the 
breadwinner. There is only one right step to be taken by all such. 
They must set themselves to change their business at the first 
possible moment, even though the change at first would involve a 
smaller income. The great promise to present is Phil. 4: 19, “My 
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by 


116 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Christ Jesus.” Stand out on this promise. God will not fail you. 
Instances could be cited to prove how great the joy has been in a 
home where this change was made on faith, where God had opened 
the way to a happier service. 

Then many people hesitate to confess Christ because of the atti- 
tude of relatives or friends in the home or in business. Christ said 
it would be so with some (Matt. 10: 36-39). Peter also refers to it 
in I Pet. 4: 14. Here also there is just one right thing to do. 
Confess Christ at once and begin to win your relatives and friends 
to him. Read Mark 5: 19, with its special command to testify in 
your own home for him. Note also, in Matt. 12: 46-50, how 


Christ’s own mother and brethren tried to dissuade him from his © 


course. Suppose he had yielded to their influence and proved un- 
faithful to God and men! Several instances could be given to show 
that where hesitant Christians held back from confessing Christ 
because of relatives or friends, after they took the step their influ- 
ence for Christ was increased manyfold and often they won those to 
Christ who had been the occasion of their fear and compromise. 


PRAYER: Let me not suppose, O Christ, that a true disciple of 
Thine can evade the cross. Help me to be absolutely true to Thee, 
remembering that beyond the cross is the crown. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


One church which followed the program suggested in Studies IV 
and V devoted several mid-week services to the study of a leaflet 
which the writer prepared containing these “Scripture Answers.” 
Some one read the excuses, and others would give the answers, 
with the Scripture references. In every case some one was able to 
give the answer. It was most profitable exercise. 

I. What excuses born of fear are mentioned? How would you 
answer the first of these? What answer may be given to the 
second excuse? Make a determined effort to master these answers 
thoroughly. | 

2. What excuses are born of self-complacency? What is the 
answer to the first? What is the answer to the second? Do not 


be satisfied until you have mastered every detail of these answers. 


3. What excuses are born of indifference? How prevalent is 


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SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO EXCUSES 117 


the first excuse? What is the answer? What is said about the 
temptation to yield to the second excuse? What Scripture passages 
are given in connection with this answer? 

4. What excuses are born of a critical spirit? How does the 
first excuse differ from that of the complacent man? What are 
the answers given? Where do we generally hear the second 
excuse? What admissions must we make largely justifying it? 
What then must be urged upon all who make this excuse? 

5. What excuses are often given involving experience? What 
is said about the different experiences of people who are converted? 
What is common to all true conversions? Contrast the experience 
of Paul with that of Andrew and John. State the difference 
between the conversion of the Philippian jailer and that of Lydia. 
What is the answer to the second excuse as made clear in Phil. 
3: 12-14? 

6. What excuses are mentioned involving conduct? What 
answers are given to the first excuse? What earlier Study should 
be reviewed at this point? Tell the story of Dr. Babcock and the 
opera tickets. What must be the action taken by those who hesi- 
tate because of business connections or unsympathetic relatives or 
friends? What Scripture is quoted at these points? 


PraYER: May I not be of those, O Lord, of whom we read that 
“they all with one consent began to make excuse.” May I realize 
how unworthy any excuse must be for not being eager to confess 
and serve Thee always. 


STUDY XI 
SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO COMMON OBJECTIONS 


First Day: Church Membership Is Not Necessary to Sal- 

vation 

In spite of the clear teaching of the New Testament regarding 
the duty of the believer to confess Christ openly, there are those 
who claim that they can be true Christians without doing this, and 
that such confession is not necessary. While no man may sit in 
final judgment upon another, the fact remains that when a man 
refuses to identify himself openly with the cause of Christ, one 
cannot but question the quality of his allegiance, not to say its 
reality. It is like a man eligible to the Army in the recent war in- 
sisting that he could be as good a soldier without enlisting as he 
could by going into the ranks of the Army. No man can be as loyal 
to Christ when maintaining a negative attitude toward him and 
his cause before the world, as he can when he is positive and eager 
to be counted his follower. 

The honest student of the gospels cannot doubt that Christ ex- 
pected and required this confession on the part of all who believed 
on him. A true friend will never ask, “Must I?” but “May I?” 


John 14: 23, 24 makes it clear, as Christ says: “If a man love me, 


he will keep my words.” And his “words” are very plain, in Matt. 
10: 32, 33, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him 
will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But who- 
soever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my 
Father which is in heaven.” Christ cannot claim us as his before 
his Father, unless we are really his. The only open confession the 
world recognizes is church membership. We read in Acts 2: 41-47 
that believers were baptized and that “the Lord added to them 
day by day those that were (being) saved.” 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul assumes, as a matter of course, 
that believers will “not be ashamed” to confess the Lord (Rom. 10: 
8-11). When he charged his disciples to be his witnesses (Acts I: 
8), it is perfectly evident that Christ expected them to “confess him 
with the mouth,” as Paul puts it. In fact, when Paul says: “For 


118 


eae ~ 5 
ee 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 119 


with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation,” one is justified in 
wondering whether a man who refuses to confess Christ openly 
does not prove that in his heart he lacks a true spirit of personal 
allegiance to his Lord. Let such considerations as these be urged 
upon all who refuse or hesitate to confess Christ by uniting with 
the Church. To fail here is to be an actual “slacker” in the 
Master’s service. 


PRAYER: As I value Thy friendship and saving grace, O Master, 
may I always be eager to prove the fullest allegiance to Thee and 
Thy cause. 


Second Day: Doubts about the Supernatural 


The nature of the world proves the presence and power of a 
creative and controlling Intelligence far above that of man. The 
psalmist (Psalm 19: 1) gives expression to the appreciation of 
this truth: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment sheweth his handiwork.” Lord Kelvin is conceded to be as 
great a scientist as any man of our time. He declared that 
“Science positively affirms Creative Power. ... There is nothing 
between absolute scientific belief in a Creative Power and the 
acceptance of the theory of a fortuitous concourse of atoms. 
Modern scientific men are in agreement in condemning the latter 
as utterly absurd. . . . Forty years ago I asked Liebig, walking in 
the country, if he believed that the grass and flowers that we saw 
around us grew by mere chemical forces. He answered: ‘No, no 
more than I could believe that a book on botany describing them 
could grow by mere chemical forces.’ ... Every action of free 
will is a miracle to physical and chemical and mathematical science. 
... If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to 
the belief in God, which is the foundation of all religion. You will 
find science not antagonistic but helpful to religion.” 

We have here a sufficient answer to the man who questions the 
reasonableness of believing in God as the Creator and Ruler of the 
universe. Paul tells us, in Rom. 1: 20, that in the light of nature 
itself no man is without excuse who refuses to recognize a super- 
natural Intelligence at work in the world. We turn now from 


120 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


nature, with its proof of a Power far above that of man, to Jesus — 
Christ, whose unique life places him also far above the life of 
men, in his perfection of character. He lived that life before them, 
when they were watching with lynx eyes to detect the least flaw — 


in his character, and he challenged them to meet his claim that his 


life guaranteed the truth of his teaching. In John 8: 46, he said: — 


“Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why 


do ye not believe me?” Moreover, the gospel record contains © 
accounts of his manifesting the power of God in works of healing, © 
restoring the dead to life, and controlling the elements of nature. 


These records bear on their face the evidences of genuineness. 
The most convincing evidence of all is the fact that Christ has been 
revealing through the years the power of God to save men from the 
slavery of sin, and make them new men in righteousness and love. 
These “miracles of grace” are the strongest proof that his super- 
natural power was also revealed in other ways. 


Taking these two lines of proof in nature and in grace in human ~ 
life, it may confidently be urged that to believe in the supernatural — 
is the only intelligent position possible for an honest man, who will — 
think far enough into the facts, as Lord Kelvin says, for science — 
will compel him to arrive at this conclusion. We are not able to © 
comprehend the infinite sweep of knowledge and power which ~ 
stretches away beyond our finite ken; but we do have sufficient 
evidence of such knowledge and power to make it impossible for us — 
to deny their existence. Moreover, science teaches that the uni- — 
formity of law and the solidarity of creation make it impossible to 
believe in more than one Creator and Ruler, whose laws control us — 
on every side. We speak of him as God, because all nature reveals © 
the fact that he is good. In this connection Study VII should be © 


carefully reviewed. 


PRAYER: O Thou “in whom we live and move and have our — 
being,” give us to know Thee as the God of our life and our — 


salvation. 


Third Day: Difficulties Which Some Find in the Bible 


We have noted heretofore the reasonableness of our faith in God © 
as our Father in the heavenlies, as taught us by Jesus Christ. It — 





SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 121 


would be a simple sequence to admit the equal reasonableness of the 
belief that a father would tell his children what they need to know 
about their relations to him and to their fellowmen. This God has 
done in the Scriptures, which vindicate their claim to be the Word 
of God by the character of their teachings and by the results which 
follow when men accept them as the rule of faith and life. The one 
great story of the Scriptures is the account of God’s redeeming 
love at work in saving men from the penalty and power of sin. 
This constant purpose is another proof of their genuineness. Men 
do not manufacture a lie in order to secure truth in the life, and 
then die for their faith. 

In Psalm 19: 7-11, there is a striking statement of the character 
of “the law of the Lord,” and the great value men have realized in 
keeping it. Paul also describes the worth of the Scriptures, in II 
Tim. 3: 16, 17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works.” Again we read in Heb. 1: 1, 2, 
“God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake . . . unto 
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us 
by his Son.” Well may we say with Peter (John 6: 68, 69), “Lord, 
to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we 
believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living 
God.” 

Having indicated the reasonableness of accepting the record of 
the supernatural in the Scriptures, we may note two of the common 
difficulties, as many count them. One of these is the fact that 
discrepancies are found in the Scriptures. How can this fact be 
consistent with a divine revelation? The answer is in the way the 
Scriptures have been carried down through the years by human 
hands. We are justified in believing, in view of the facts already , 
considered, that the original manuscripts were free from error. . 
Their historic reliability has been tested and proved by con- 
temporaneous history. But the point of great significance is that 
these discrepancies are never important, and never once are found 
where any fundamental teaching of Scripture is recorded. Slight 
changes occur, doubtless often by the hands of copyists. Some 
differences in figures, as to the size of armies, also occur; but some 


122 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


one has fairly said they are “like specks of sandstone in a marble 
temple.” They do not make the slightest difference at a single 
point in any vital teaching of the book. 

A more serious difficulty for some is the difference in the moral 
standards found in the Old and New Testaments. Unbelievers 
frequently attack Old Testament standards of living as unworthy 
the God of righteousness and love. The first answer to this objec- 
tion is that the revelation of God found in the Scriptures is a 
progressive revelation. Canon Mozley states the case thus: “A 
religion from God must be revealed progressively. If it had been 
at once proclaimed in its higher and purer form, men in their moral 
darkness and degradation could not have received it. It must come 
to them through their own moral atmosphere, modified by its con- 
fusion on all ethical questions. It could only be apprehended 
gradually. By degrees it will elevate the standard, and lift the 
race to a higher plane.” 

In the light of this clear statement, the next point to emphasize 
is that Christ gives men the final and perfect standard. In Mark 
10: 2-5 Christ told the people regarding the Mosaic law allowing 
easy divorce, that it was not the final expression of the wil of God, 
saying: “For the hardness of your heart he [Moses, through whom 
the law was given] wrote you this precept.” Christ himself has 
given us the highest ground to be taken on this subject. Again 
Paul, in his sermon to the Athenians (Acts 17: 29, 30), touches the 
same thought: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; 
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Again in 
Matt. 5: 43 Christ said: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, 
Thou shalt love thy neighbor ard hate thine enemy” (Deut. 23: 3-6, 
Lev. 19: 18, Psalm 41: 9-11). “But I say unto you, Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you.” 

These problems find solution as we realize the final authority 
of Christ. He is the point of true perspective of the whole Bible. 
Relate, the Old Testament to his coming and work, and it all 
becomes luminous. Then study the New Testament in the light of 
his life and death, his continuing intercession and his coming again, 
and the revelation of God’s will becomes clear in its purpose and 
development, as well as in its glorious consummation. Christ’s 
special insistence upon his message is at the point where it illumi- 


q 
f 





SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 123 


nates spiritual realities. Here he purposed that it should reveal its 
power as the eternal truth of God. Read John 3: 11-21. Christ 
also points to the eternal truth of the Old Testament as being that 
part in which these same spiritual values are involved. It is of this 
truth that he said (Matt. 5: 18) that “one jot or one tittle shall in 
no wise pass ... till all be fulfilled.” Here the authority of Christ 
is supreme, infallible, and eternal. All that men need to make the 
path of duty plain for this life is given, as well as the ground for 
our eternal hope. 


PRAYER: Lord, help me to find Thy Word to be alamp to my feet 
and a light to my path, so that I may walk in Thy statutes with a 
glad heart. 


Fourth Day: Questions about the Hereafter 


We have many intimations of immortality—in nature, in the 
unsatisfied longings of the human soul, and in the hints of psychic 
research as to the activities of discarnate spirits; but none of these 
can furnish positive proof of the immortality of human souls. 
Our only ground for an intelligent faith in the future life is the 
teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. We have 
referred to Christ’s trustworthiness as a teacher. Keeping this in 
mind, turn to John 14: I-12, where Jesus is standing with his 
disciples at the moment of his departure from the earth, to “ascend 
up where he was before” (John 6: 62). His disciples are broken- 
hearted because of his statement that he is about to leave them and 
return to the Father. Of one thing they are certain, namely, that 
they can trust him absolutely to tell them the truth. He knows they 
are hanging on his words, in order that they may have some assur- 
ance about the future and their being with him again. Knowing 
that they trust him thus, he says: “In my Father’s house are many 
mansions [abiding places]: if 1t were not so, I would have told you. 
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where 
I am, there ye may be also.” 

When we take into account all of the teachings of Christ and his 
apostles concerning this life and the life to come, there are three 
steps which mark the intelligent faith of the believer. First, we take 


124 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


these teachings and test them in this earthly life. At every point 
where they bear upon the daily life, we find that they are true. 
Hence we prove Christ to be trustworthy in so far as his teachings 
for this life are concerned. Any man who claims to desire to 
realize the best possible life here, in victorious character, must take 
Christ for the Lord of his earthly life, whether or not he look 
beyond the grave. He cannot escape this obligation if sincere in 
his. profession to desire the best method for the earthly life. 

Moreover, Christ has taught us that this life does not end at the 
grave, and that we are not the children of the dust, but of the King 
immortal and eternal. He has taught us to build character as unto 
God, making thereby the unerasable lines of an immortal exist- 
ence, rather than seeking reputation at the hands of men. He has 
told us that if we will do this, we can realize here the blessings that 
will come from this sort of living. Read his teaching about the 
way of the blessed life in Matt. 5: 1-12; also his assurance in John 
14: 20, 21, where the heavenly blessings continue with the earthly 
communion with the Lord. His apostles again and again unfold 
the same truth, simply elaborating Christ’s teachings. Once more 
we are able to test the word of Christ, for we find as we take his 
statement as a working hypothesis, and live as if it were so, we prove 
the power of his truth, quickening every incentive to love God and 
our fellowmen, according to his will. You may divide the race into 
two classes, one living as if it were not so, forgetting God and godli- 
ness, as if there were nothing beyond the dust of the grave; the 
other class living as if it were so, looking Godward in all life, and 
seeking to do his will in every opportunity to serve while in the 
flesh. No man could study these two groups of people for one 
hour, and ever have any doubt as to where the truth is to be found, 
with its supreme values. Hence again we prove Christ to be true 
and trustworthy. 

Once more our Lord teaches us that, beyond our power to test, 
there is an abiding place in the presence of God and the glories 
of the redeemed. What now shall we say to this teaching, which 
points us beyond the reach of human ken? There can be but one 
reasonable position to take. We have proved him true and trust- 
worthy concerning his teachings for this life. We have tested 
his teachings regarding the blessed results realized even here when 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 125 


we live along the lines of his revelation concerning the ongoing of 
our souls as children of God, and we seek to do God’s will here 
day by day. In this second testing we have also proved him true 
and trustworthy. Hence we must trust him when he tells us of 
that which goes beyond our power to know. Reason, logic, faith, 
hope, love, all resting on actual experience, compel us to say with 
Paul (II Tim. 1: 12), “I know whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day.” Paul had not the slightest doubt about it, and 
when the time of his departure was at hand (Phil. 1: 23, 24), he 
was quite certain that “to depart and be with Christ” was “far 
better” than “to abide in the flesh.” This is the reasonableness of 
the Christian’s faith in the future life. 


Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that I may be of those of whom Thou 
dost say: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, 
be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” 


Fifth Day: “I Cannot Believe What I Cannot Understand” 


The agnostic attitude is more prevalent today than it has been for 
nearly a century. There are many people who have never given 
time to think their way to an intelligent position in connection with 
the teachings of religion and the claims of Christ. In many modern 
institutions of learning, where they would study various sciences, 
they would receive no help whatever in this higher realm of char- 
acter building. In fact very often the subject of religion is dis- 
missed as outside the realm of practical daily life, and as being 
beyond the pale of realities, dealing largely with matters of un- 
certain faith and “other-worldliness.”’ Hence a very common objec- 
tion given by many to considering the claims of religion is that they 
cannot believe what they do not understand. 

But the simple fact is that this statement is not true. We are 
believing in hundreds of things that we do not understand. The 
emphasis made in the first day of Study IX is applicable here. We 
all accept the fact of electricity but no man understands it. The 
human mind is finite and every living soul is supplementing his 
knowledge every day with a very active and natural faith. Christ 
called the attention of Nicodemus to the fact (John 3: 7-13) that 


126 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


he believed in the wind, though he did not know whence it came or — 
whither it went. We may apprehend a fact with certainty without 
comprehending its mystery or without testing our faith thoroughly — 
in the fact or the individual. The vast majority of business is done — 
on paper, all of which is a matter of faith. We ask for “creden- © 
tials,” which indicate how much faith some one else has in a person, — 


and because of our faith in the person who gives the credentials we 
put our faith in the one in whom he believes. 

The indictment against agnosticism is that men fall back upon it 
in matters of religion, but do not allow it to interfere with their 
business or pleasure in the same way. They go right along utiliz- 
ing many facts, like electricity, without understanding them, and 
believing in people whom they do not know and about whose 
character they are not well informed. This they consider the prac- 
tical thing to do, and in the main it is. They must be challenged 
to face the claims of the Christian religion on the ground that its 
value to the human race cannot be ignored by any honest student of 
history. As Paul said to Festus (Acts 26: 26), “this thing was not 
done ina corner.” To refuse to give full and fair consideration to 
the benefits which have come to mankind through the Christian 
religion, betokens a willingness to be intellectually dishonest with 
one’s own soul and with the truth. In dealing with such, it will 
often be necessary to say some very direct things along this line of 
thought. Most people do not want others to think them intellectu- 
ally dishonest, even if they know themselves to be so. This accusa- 
tion has often led some such to be dissatisfied with themselves, and 
that was the beginning of honest inquiry into the truth. 

Every agnostic can understand this one thing, that Christianity 


has proved to be the best religion known to men. Notwithstanding ~ 


all those failures that have marked the peoples who have called 
themselves Christians, the fact remains that it has brought greater 
blessings to men than any other religion, and that its greatest bless- 
ings are those priceless values which make for character-building 
on the high level of moral and spiritual worth, where all the hope 
of the race is centered. The difficulty in the way of the progress 
of Christianity has been, not with the teachings of Christ, but with 
the unwillingness of men to give them place. Wherever his teach- 
ings have been accepted and practiced they have proved sufficient 





oe Se ee 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 127 


to solve every problem of the individual, the community, and the 
nation. Here are undeniable facts, which the agnostic must recog- 
nize or confess himself dishonest. 

Another exceedingly important fact is that many people suppose 
the intellect to be the only organ of evidence to the soul, and conse- 
quently decide their attitude toward Christianity on the ground 
that they are not able intellectually to solve all of its problems. But 
the affections are also an organ of evidence to the soul, especially 
in the realm of personal relationships. I know that my mother 
loves me; but I cannot prove it by an intellectual process. Not only 
so, but the will is also an organ of evidence, especially in the realm 
of personal relationships, as Christ clearly teaches in John 7: 17: 
“Tf any man willeth (is willing) to do his will he shall know of the 
teaching whether it is of God.” All this is of vital importance, as 
it involves the necessity of relating your will to that of the living 
God, in an attitude of submission to his will. In the nature of 
things, this can be the only right relation of a creature to his 
Creator, and of a follower to his Lord. Every one who has tried 
it, testifies to its belssings. 


PRAYER: Help us to realize, O God, that though we may evade the 
truth for awhile, one day we must face tt in Thy presence, when no 
subterfuge will avail us. 


Sixth Day: How to Discover Ostensible Objections 


The foregoing considerations suggest the fact that very often 
people profess to have objections of an intellectual character which 
justify them in turning away from Jesus Christ, when in fact their 
difficulty is not intellectual, but moral. A pastor in an eastern city 
was interviewing a man who presented what he claimed to be his in- 
tellectual difficulties. After much discussion, he admitted that his 
objections had been fairly answered. Yet he returned to some of 
them again, traveling in a circle. Then the minister asked this 
question: “Suppose all of your intellectual difficulties were 
answered to your perfect satisfaction, would you then be willing to 
take Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master, to live your daily life 
exactly as you know he would want you to live it?” Without much 
hesitation, he replied: “Well, doctor, I am afraid I would not.” 


128 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Then the minister called his attention to the fact that his difficulty 
was not really intellectual, but moral, and that it must be decided in 
the realm of his will. He called his attention to the words of 
Christ, in John 13: 17: “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye 
do them.” 

The man who is perfectly honest with Jesus Christ will not evade 
his plain responsibility to be true to his highest and best by raising 
excuses or objections which are not real and sincere. He knows 
that the first thing for an honest man to do is to face his sin, espe- 
cially the sin of self-will,-with an honest confession of his need of 
help beyond himself. He also knows of friends who have proved 
Jesus Christ to be able to help all who turn to him for help. He 
knows that the first assent of faith in Christ must be coupled 
with a sincere penitence because of his sin, and a turning to Christ 
because of his promise to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness. Questions outside of this first range of plain steps 
to be taken need not to be settled before these first steps are taken. 
In fact, when they are taken, the new life begins to bear its 
blessed fruit, and ostensible objections melt away. There will be 
more to know from day to day, but we may all say with the prophet 
Hosea (6: 3), “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know 
the Lord.” 

In keeping with this emphasis is the fact that most Protestant 
communions require a very simple condition for membership. 
When one accepts the great fundamentals of faith in Christ, which 
we have already noted, he will be welcomed into the communion of 
these churches. Many elements which make up the fulness of the 
Scripture teachings will come later; and are to be studied in the 
realm of individual liberty of opinion, when there is honest differ- 
ence between evangelical Christians. Put first things first, and let 
these have a secondary place. First of all, “Taste and see that the 
Lord is good.” Recall how simple was the faith of the Ethiopian 
(Acts 8: 36, 37), “What doth hinder me to be baptized? And 
Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And 
he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God.” 

It is therefore wise to discover early in the conversation just how 
far the individual is willing to make a beginning in the way of 


ee 


SCRIPTURE ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 129 


taking Christ as his Saviour. Emphasize this line of thought as a 
help to decide him to go as far as he does realize his duty, allowing 
ostensible difficulties to wait. This will quickly discover what his 
real attitude is, and it will often be a discovery to himself as well. 
Such realization will always clear the atmosphere and help one to 
see the next step to take. 


Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to seek first the Kingdom of God and 
his righteousness, assured that all other things shall be added that 
are for my welfare. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


Intellectual pride always betokens intellectual weakness. The 
sign of intellectual strength is the spirit of humility in the face of 
so much that baffles all human science and human philosophy. To 
be teachable in the presence of the greatest Teacher of men is the 
only worthy spirit. 

1. When one claiming to believe in Christ refuses to confess 
his faith, what must we infer about him? What Scripture shows 
that Christ asks us to confess him before men? What does Paul 
say about this in Rom. 10: 8-11? 

2. What is the statement by Lord Kelvin about believing in a 
Creator? What did Liebig say on the same subject? Why is 
Christ’s character an assurance of the truth of his statements? 
What do “miracles of grace” justify us in believing about other 
manifestations of God’s power? What does science teach about 
one God? What Study should be reviewed in this connection? 

3. What is the final proof of the genuineness of the Scriptures? 
What is the great story of the Bible? What Scripture is quoted to 
show its value? What is said of the original manuscripts? How 
are discrepancies explained? How are the different moral 
standards of the Bible explained? In what way does Christ claim 
final authority in religion? 

4. Have we any positive proof of the immortality of the soul? 
What justifies our faith in such a future? What point is empha- 
sized in connection with Christ’s testimony to his disciples? Give 
the three steps which justify the Christian’s faith in Christ’s revela- 
tion about the future life. 


| 


130 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


5. How prevalent is the agnostic position today? How do men 
deal with things we do not understand in all other realms of life? 
What is the challenge of Christian history? What is said about — 
the intellectual honesty of agnostics? What are the organs of © 
evidence to the soul? | 

6. Tell the story of the pastor and the man who discovered that — 
his difficulty was not intellectual, but moral. When should we | 
seek to learn just how far the objector will go in deciding to do — 
what is a clear duty? What are the first simple steps to take? 
What is said about the simple condition of church membership in 
most communions? 


PRAYER: Help me, O Christ, to be ready to live up to such light 
as I have, and to be assured that by so doing I shall be led into more 
hight. 


STUDY XII 
STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 


First Day: The Vital Importance of This Service 


One of the most pathetic statements in the New Testament is the 
declaration of Paul to the Corinthians (I Cor. 3: 1-3) that they 
were still “babes in Christ,” in that they had made so little progress 
in the Christian life since they accepted Jesus as their Saviour. We 
have heard Christians testify that on looking back ten years they 
were not conscious of having made any progress in their religious 
experience. In all humility, realizing how much yet remains for 
us in Christ, we must confess that such a statement indicates a real 
failure on the part of such, for it indicates, first of all, actual in- 
difference about making progress in the possibilities of Christian 
growth. No one could be anxious to grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of the Lord, and go through ten years without having 
many precious and increasing blessings. 

In too many cases there is a feeling that when once a person 
has made a public confession of faith in Christ and been received 
into the membership of the Church, we may rest satisfied. But the 
Christian life should be just beginning its experience of growth 
and fruitfulness with this enlistment. Were the soldier to imagine 
that he has nothing more to do after having been recruited, there 
would be no victories for him. We have our Young Men’s and 
Young Women’s Christian Associations, and we have young 
people’s organizations in our churches; but the fact remains that we 
have not done enough to plan definitely for the training of those 
who have united with the Church and are just beginning the 
Christian life. This applies especially to young people. It is 
conceded that the average Sunday school of today is falling short of 
the program that is needed in effective Christian nurture. 

The logic of all that has been said thus far about the failure of 
the Church generally to train its members to be efficient in win- 
ning others to Christ, applies immediately at this point. For some 
three decades there have been increasing numbers of “conferences 


131 


132 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 






for the deepening of the spiritual life,’ beginning with Northfield, © 
where Mr. Moody gathered a group of college students to consider 
the call of Christ for young people to consecrate their lives to his — 
service. Many of the outstanding leaders in Christian service in 
this country trace their decision to those early Northfield days, and 
thousands testify to the priceless blessings received there, and - 
elsewhere. | 

In more recent years conferences for young people have been : 
conducted by the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian 
Associations for collegé students and members of their city Asso- 
ciations. These have been supplemented by many conferences for _ 
mission study courses, and various Sunday school training courses, | 
all proving how great has been the need, and also how great have | 
been the benefits derived from them. For even in a ten days’ | 
gathering of this sort thousands of young people, and older as well, 
have been led to realize the spiritual barrenness of their lives, and 
have been quickened to a definite consecration to Christian service. 
Prayer penetrates the atmosphere of these conferences, with their 
Bible classes and special studies of missionary and other themes, all 
tending to a more thorough preparation of willing workers for a 
positive influence upon the home church or Association, when they 
return. Instantly it is recognized in their churches that they have 
received a special blessing, and at once plans are made to send 
others the next year. 

But why should such special conferences be needed? The 
answer is inevitable—because the spiritual atmosphere of these 
special conferences is not found in the life of the average church. 
It lacks this warmth of eager desire to be more efficient, this spirit 
of consecration, this new readiness to deny self and put Christ first, 
for the new vision has caught a new estimate of things that make 
life worth while. Who shall say that the Church shall be com- 
placent in the face of the need of developing just this atmosphere? 
What a gigantic task confronts us here! No man can do it; but 
God can do it, and will do it in every church that waits on him for 
the grace to have him cleanse out everything that might hinder his 
Holy Spirit in accomplishing this blessed result. How tragic is the 
sense of helplessness that we feel at the mere mention of such a 
program! We realize what a tremendous lethargy of indifference 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 133 


must be overcome. But nothing less is necessary if the Church 
shall rise to meet its challenge today. God will prove equal to 
the task, if we give him his chance. 


PRAYER: Revive Thy work, O Lord, in my church, and begin in 
me. Cleanse out of my life everything that might hinder Thee 
from having full right of way there. 


Second Day: The Big Brother Spirit at Work 


Some years ago the so-called Big Brother Movement was started 
in an eastern city. The plan was to have a Christian with some 
experience take a special interest in one just beginning the Chris- 
tian life, or one who had not yet known Christ, and, by an im- 
mediate frequent contact, help such a one to become a Christian or 
to become a stronger follower of the Master. This fellowship had 
Christ at the heart of it. Wherever the plan was practiced, a 
notable result was the reflex blessing always received by the Chris- 
tian, as marked as the help received by the younger friend. The 
original plan was devised for men and boys, but the principle is 
applicable everywhere. 

The first Sunday after Theodore Roosevelt entered Harvard, he 
went to the nearest evangelical Sunday school and asked if there 
were a class of boys needing a teacher. The class was waiting 
for him. During his four years at college he taught that class. 
One can imagine how great was the help received by the boys, not 
simply in the class, but in the interest taken by the teacher 
in each boy. And Roosevelt has testified that his Sunday school 
class was his anchor in the midst of college temptations common to 
every student. There is great need of this big brother spirit on the 
part of Sunday school teachers, involving more than the teaching 
of the lesson. It includes the plan to touch personally through the 
week the boys and girls in the class, revealing the love of Christ 
in a vital way. 

The adoption of this method in every church and Association 
would result in untold blessings. When the class has already 
adopted the plan suggested in Study V, with its prayer covenant 
and special concern for all who are not professing Christians, the 
teacher has an immense advantage in the plan itself, and can enter 


134 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


into the lives of the Christian members of the class, helping them to 
cultivate the prayer life and the Bible study involved in the regular — 
work of the class. In such classes the teacher could at once secure ~ 
a big brother relation between the professing Christians in the — 
class and those who are not. Doing this would help very markedly © 
in winning such to Christ and the Church. Moreover, whenever it — 


became evident that a member of the class indicated special interest 
in the deeper things of the spiritual life, the teacher would then be 
instant in the effort to do whatever definite thing would meet such 
a desire. Of course all this assumes a teacher who is himself far 
enough along in the experience of fellowship with Christ to meet 
all these situations which would challenge his leadership. 

In Acts 18: 24—19: 7, we have an illustration of this kind of 
special help and the great value of it. At Ephesus we find a young 
man, Apollos by name, who was “an eloquent man, and mighty in 
the Scriptures’; but who betrayed the fact that he was not fully 
equipped for his work, for he knew “only the baptism of John.” 
Two earnest Christians, Aquila and his wife Priscilla, “took him 
unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” 
They probably had no such natural gifts as Apollos, but they knew 
the full Gospel better than he, and by helping him extended their 
own influence into many lives. Today there are some with evident 
ability in public speech who do not know the Holy Spirit, and have 
never received his power. The gifts of men are not to be de- 
spised, but rather cultivated; yet without the accompanying gift of 
God’s Spirit, they will not avail to help others to “know the way of 
God more perfectly.” 

We have here a principle which may be most helpfully applied 
in every church as a follow-up plan, and which will be as helpful 
to the church member as to the one whom he seeks to draw into 
the fellowship of its worship and service. Divide the membership 
into six parts, the older men and women, the younger men and 
women, and the older boys and girls. Whenever a newcomer 
appears in the church at any service, one should be chosen from the 
corresponding group and assigned to him, or her, to cultivate all 
the personal attentions and relationships that will result in drawing 
the newcomer into the life of the church. The church member 





should be chosen with a view to neighborhood convenience when ~ 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 135 


possible. It may mean calling at the home of the new friend, either 
to come with him to a service, or to cultivate acquaintance. It will 
mean devoting one’s time faithfully to the task of helping to assimi- 
late thoroughly the newcomer with the life of the church. Then let 
the newly established member be appointed to the same service in 
connection with another still more recent attendant. No better or 
more efficient follow-up plan has been known to the writer. Try 
it. 










PRAYER: Give me Thy shepherd-love, O Christ, so that I shall not 
hesitate to be a friend to one who is lonely and hungry for Christian 
fellowship. 


Third Day: Arranging Interviews with Strong Christians 


Within recent years certain Young Men’s Christian Associations 
conceived the idea of arranging to have experienced Christians 
meet young men who would be glad to talk over their problems and 
needs with such sympathetic advisers. The Secretary asked men 
of standing and reputation to give one evening a month to such 
interviews. Several responded. In some instances it was the first 
time these men had been offered something definite in the way of 
personal Christian service. They saw in this plan an opportunity 
for real and lasting usefulness. Announcement was made that 
“Judge ——” would be glad to talk with any of the young men who 
might care to discuss their problems with him on a certain evening. 
Several young men were listed and the interviews began. Some- 
times the interviewer would be a prominent business man, or one 
well known in the community as commanding the respect of all. 
_ Of course it was the ultimate aim in all these interviews to help 
the persons interviewed to find Jesus Christ, or to come into closer 
personal relationships with him. As a result not only were many 
young men greatly blessed, but those who agreed to conduct the 
interviews testified to the reflex blessings they received. Anyone 
who has spent hours at student conferences in such interviews 
knows that quickening results always prove helpful to the leaders 
as they try to help others. One notable case in a city of the 
middle west should be mentioned. He was a very busy man and 
agreed to one evening each month with hesitation. In a few weeks 


136 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


he asked to be scheduled twice a month. Later he asked to be 
announced as coming once a week. Only an absolutely imperative 
engagement ever takes him away from that night at the Association, 
where he is quite clearly convinced that his devotion of that set 
time, in sympathy and prayer, to helping dozens of younger men, is 
the best possible investment he can make once a week. The divi- 
dends which return no man can estimate in their priceless values, 
for they are built into immortal lives. | 

It is rather remarkable that this method of Christian service has 
not been more widely practiced. It could be embodied in the 
program of any live church, and be practiced by both men and 
women. Often the interviews might be at the home of the leader, 
especially when an invitation to a home might mean much to a 
lonely young man or woman. Or they might be on a given night. 
at the church, when a social time would be conducted for all new- 
comers, and then they would divide up into different places for the 
interviews. It isa character of Christian service that would appeal 
to some men and women who are not so responsive to other forms 
of service. Some one energetic person in each church should have 
charge of making these appointments, having both lists well in 
hand, and assigning two people to an interview in the light of what 
he knows of both. 

The student of Scripture quickly recalls how many personal inter- 
views are recorded therein between the Lord and single individuals, 
and of how great importance these interviews proved to be. It is 
true in both Old and New Testaments, and interesting and instruc-- 
tive to note how different the circumstances were in different cases, 
and how the differing needs were met. Note the case of Abraham: 
in Gen. 12: 1-3; of Moses in Exodus 3: 1-12; of Isaiah in Isa. 67) 
1-8; of Job in Job 38—42; of Elijah in I Kings 19: 8-18. Note 
Christ’s interviews with Andrew and John, John 1: 35-42; with 
Nicodemus, John 3; with the woman of Samaria, John 4: 6- 29; 
with the woman taken in adultery, John 8: 3-11; and with the rich 
young ruler, Luke 18: 18-23. : | 





PRAYER: Lord, help me to appreciate the importance of an audi-— 
ence of one, by realizing that the result of one conversation may be 
the determining of the destiny of an immortal soul. 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 137 


‘Fourth Day: Reclaiming Backsliders 


When mention is made of backsliders, we generally think of 
‘those whose lives are marked by practices involving not simply 
neglect of Christian duty, but overt sin. But we have already men- 
‘tioned others who must be counted as being all too complacent in 
their habits of life, though they neglect the study of God’s Word 
and the habit of prayer and public worship, because they do not 
break the ordinary conventions of social and business ethics. Many 
of these were once active in the service of Christ who are so no 
longer. We have heard professing Christians relate how active 
they once were, intending this as an evidence that they have done 
their part, and should henceforth be excused from active service. 
But the fact is that their statement proves them to be “slackers,” if 
some stronger word should not be used. Is this too strong a state- 
ment? Not when applied to those who are still vigorous in health, 
if Christianity is ever to win in the world. There is a statement in 
Eccl. 8: 8, which should be written in letters of fire on the walls 
of every Christian life: “There is no discharge in that war.’ 

He who becomes weary in well-doing, disobeying the command 
in Gal. 6: 9, is uncovering a dangerously vulnerable point in his 
armor, and an arrow from the devil’s quiver will soon find it. 
Paul’s appeal may well be pondered in earnest prayer, as he urges 
us in Eph. 6: 10-18, to “put on the whole armor of God... and 
having done all to stand.” The best way to reclaim backsliders is 
to prevent them, and also to seek, with quick and unhesitating 
determination, to help them at the first sign of their slipping away. 
The constant inspiration for the Christian in this service is found in 
Gal. 6: 1-10, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which 
are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; consider- 
ing thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Use also I John 1: 6-10 
in dealing with them. Usually the same considerations which are 
emphasized in winning people to Christ may be used with increasing 
appropriateness to those who have not been faithful. 

A special handbook to use in this form of service is the epistle 
to the Hebrews. It was written to help weak Christians of the 
early Church, many of whom were going back because of the hard- 
ships involved in being faithful. As intimated in Heb. 2: 1, R. V., 





138 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


some of them were drifting away. The writer sought to strengthen 


their faith in Christ by picturing what he had done for them and 


for the salvation of the world, also by picturing him as now inter- 
ceding for us at the mediatorial throne of God. He sought to show 


how through the Old Testament times those whose lives had made > 
a real contribution to the welfare of Israel and the race had been ~ 


true to their faith in Christ, as the coming Messiah, though that 
meant sufferings and even death. The special appeal is then found | 


i 


in the first part of the twelfth chapter, followed by many practical — 
suggestions about how. to hold steadfast as true Christians to the — 


end. Get the spirit of this epistle, and God will bless its use as 


: 


you seek to press home the thought therein upon the hearts and 


consciences of those in our day who are in danger of not entering 
in through their unbelief, betrayed in their unfaithfulness. 


Prayer: O Thou, whose mercy endureth forever, give me a re- 


deeming love for men. May I remember that I am debtor to every — 
man for whom Christ died, and be eager to seek to restore any who — 


may have stumbled. 


Fifth Day: “Out of Weakness They Were Made Strong” 


This inspiring statement, recorded in Heb. 11: 34, is made con- 
cerning those heroes of the faith who had wrought valiantly by the © 


grace of God, even though some of them—like Moses and David, 


who might be classed with Peter and with most of us—had 
stumbled all the way along. As we have noted, this epistle was 


a et 


seeking to strengthen weak Christians, who were slipping back to — 
the old life out of Christ, or were considering the temptations to do — 
so, hoping to keep them from falling away, or to encourage them — 


to return to their former allegiance to Christ. Though weak and 


imperfect, God had not failed them; but had strengthened their © 


faith and renewed their wills, until they came through trials and 
failures unto victory. It was not a perfect victory, yet a very real 


and blessed one. The same message is applicable to all of us in our 


day who are yielding to the spirit of the “slacker,” and easily com- 


promising with our clear conviction of all that loyal Christians © 


should seek to be. 


The main point to press home to all such is the truth that God 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 139 


is able and anxious to give them strength to be true. As a rule 
_ their state of mind will be one of discouragement because they have 
been so weak, if indeed they are susceptible at all to the appeal to 
be more faithful. For such there is a picture of what God is doing 
today, and every day, in the lives of those who had gone down to 
the depths. This picture is calculated to be as helpful to weak 
Christians as to those who are down and out in sin. Some of us 
have attended rescue missions, where a speaker from the realm 
of well-to-do Christians would speak, and receive polite attention, 
though most of his audience would think all the time he was speak- 
ing that he did not understand them. 

Then one would rise who was known to have been one of the 
worst men in the city two or three years before. Now he was an 
utterly changed man, in every respect, outward appearance as well 
as inward life. He told how he had wandered into the place to get 
a cup of coffee, and had heard a man who had a record like his 
own tell of the way Christ had changed his life. He had not sup- 
posed there was any power anywhere that could do such a thing, 
but there was his former acquaintance a living witness to the actual 
result. He himself had decided to try this Jesus and see if there 
was anything to it. Christ had met him and saved him. More- 
over, it had been some three years since, so that he had proved not 
only Christ’s power to save but also his power to keep. You have 
seen that audience of men sit up and bend forward with hungry 
looks in their eyes. Here was something concrete. They had 
known this man when he was one of the worst of their number. 
If God could do so much for him, there must be something in this 
claim that there is hope for them, and that the same loving Father 
will welcome them back to his love and help them to be faithful in 
a new life. 

“Out of weakness they were made strong.” So may we be today 
by the grace of this same God who is mighty to save and to restore 
his wayward children. One further thought should be mentioned 
here. It is the fact that some Christians are less ready to try to 
bring back one who has lost interest and grown indifferent, or 
gone off in sin, than they are to try to win others to Christ who 
never made a profession. Yet this work also is clearly a part of 
our program, as we noted in yesterday’s lesson. Once more let it 


140 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


be urged that special prayer should be cultivated in preparation for 
an approach to such an indifferent church member. Count on God 


to do what he only can do. 


PRAYER: Kindle in us, O Lord, the prayerful purpose to be of the 
righteous who will grow stronger and stronger, and help us to be 
ready to be used of Thee in helping to restore any who have 
stumbled. 


Sixth Day: “Seventy Times Seven” 


This comfort-filled, hope-giving utterance of our blessed Lord 
is presented here as applying to all Christian service as we deal 
with our fellowmen, whether Christians or not. We are likely to be 
less patient and less forgiving with professing Christians when they 
grow cold, than with those who are not yet in the Church; but the 
message of Christ should be kept in mind as applicable to all. Read 
the whole passage in Matt. 18: 21-35 where these words appear. 
In the light of the full story, we rather pity Peter when he suggests 
seven times as a reasonable limit in the matter of forgiving people. 
But did you ever try to forgive anyone seven times, one after the 
other, for the same offense exasperatingly repeated? Visualize the 
situation, and most of us will agree that Peter had gone beyond 
us in his spirit of forgiveness. Hence how startling are those words 
of the Master, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until 
seventy times seven.” 

We are reminded of Paul’s words in I Cor. 13: 8, “Love never 
faileth.” It is a hard lesson for most of us to learn. But it is of 
priceless value, not simply because it will mean that people will be 
saved who would otherwise be lost, but also because of the discipline 
it develops unto victory in the life of the Christian himself. Think 
of the picture which Christ here gives us of the forgiving love of 
God! “His mercy endureth forever.’ Brought down to our 
individual cases, it means that he continues to forgive us day after 
day, with an amazing infinite patience and forbearing love. If 
we would seek to realize the significance of the infinite love of God, 
it can best be done as we try to appreciate what his love does for 
us in this constantly repeated forgiveness, day after day, week after 
week, year after year, unto the end! And all this though we are so 


a = 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 141 


pitifully unworthy, so unappreciative, so careless, so selfish, so 
disobedient at times. In spite of it all, he loves us with an unfail- 
ing love. 

No power on earth carries in it so surely the redeeming love of 
God as the spirit of the Christian who has caught this love and 
lives it out day by day in his contact with other people. Some 
years ago a pastor received word that a man who was a member 
of his church, and who was addicted to drink, had just come 
home after the worst experience he had ever had. He hastened to 
the home, where the wife said she scarcely knew what to do, as her 
father had declared the man should never again enter his house 
and that the daughter must leave her husband and return to the 
father. The husband refused to see his pastor; but going to the 
door of the bedroom the pastor sought to assure him of his friend- 
ship and desire to be of help. With his head under the covers, he 
remained silent. For a full half hour the pastor sat by his bedside, 
repeating his desire to help and urging that God was able to give 
him the victory over his weakness. 

Finally he looked out from under the covers, saying: “Do you 
mean it?” Reassured as to this, he reached out his hand, saying: 
“Then I will make one more attempt.’ For two hours they talked 
and prayed together. The wife was called in and told of his new 
purpose, and advised to stay with him, which she agreed to do. 
The pastor secured a promise from the man that the next time 
he felt the first suggestions of the return of the old craving for 
drink, he would come immediately to the manse. A few weeks 
later, when callers were at the manse, the bell rang. The pastor 
went to the door to find his friend hesitantly saying: “You told me 
to come to you; but you are busy.” Excusing himself from the 
callers, the pastor took his friend to the study, where they talked 
on and on, praying more than once, that the desire should be taken 
away. Finally the man arose, with a tone of confidence in his 
voice, saying: “I am going straight home to the wife.” It was 
agreed that he would come again, if the desire ever returned. 

Weeks passed. The man had never missed the regular church 
services from the day of the first call, as this had been urged as a 
means of grace. One day the pastor met the wife wheeling the 
baby. “How are matters going?” he asked. Her face was radiant 


142 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


as she said: “Oh, it is glorious! You should see him these days. 
He says he is sure the taste will never return again. We have a 
family altar now, which we never had before.’ The years have 
passed, but never again has the old temptation had any power in his 
life. He is strong in the faith as to God’s keeping power. He 
declares that it is all due to the fact that one friend proved true 
to him, when all others had forsaken him. in his time of direst 
need. That friend was only used of God, as his Holy Spirit 
touched the opening heart of the penitent man; yet humanly speak- 
ing, unless Christ had had a witness just there and then, the story 
would have been different. Who could measure the gratitude of 
that pastor to God for giving him the chance thus to serve? Great 
is the joy which is part of the blessed reward of such Christ-like 
service. 


PRAYER: Help me to hear Thee saying, O Lord of divine patience, 
that I must never, never, NEVER let go. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


These possibilities in Christian nurture and upbuilding are so 
great as to excite the imagination, as we think how our blessed Lord 
is busy all the time doing these things. Think of what would 
become of us, if it were not so! John tells us (John 13: 1), “Hav- 
ing loved his own . . . he loved them unto the end.” 

I. What progress has the average church member made in the 
Christian life? How is this lack of growth explained? What do 
the blessings received at special conferences prove regarding the 
local church? What should every church strive to do in the light 
of these revelations? 

2. What is the “Big Brother” movement? What did Roosevelt 
do while in college? What was done for Apollos, and by whom? 
What follow-up plan for every church is suggested? Give a full 
statement. 

3. What interview plan is suggested? Tell of the man who 
asked for more interviews, and why? How may this plan be prac- 
ticed in the church, and by whom? Give some references to Scrip- 
ture records of personal interviews. 

4. Who are to be included under the term “backsliders”? What 


——s- 


STRENGTHENING WEAK CHRISTIANS 143 


is the best way to reclaim them? What is the main purpose of the 
epistle to the Hebrews? What is the special appeal in the twelfth 
chapter? 

5. About whom were the words used which head the Fifth Day 
study? What is the best way to encourage the weak? Illustrate 
by repeating the story of the result of personal testimony as to 
God’s power to save and keep. What should be true of Christians 
in the matter of readiness to do this work? 

6. Where do we find our Lord speaking of “Seventy times 
seven’? What is said of Peter’s forgiving spirit? What phrase 
in I Cor. 13 is suggested here? What thought helps most to realize 
the infinite love of God? Tell the story of the man whose pastor 
helped him, when he was discouraged by his slavery to the drink 
habit. Point out the items in the pastor’s method that you think 
were most helpful to the man. 


PRAYER: Lord, apart from Thee, I shell surely fail in this most 
wmportant duty. Help me therefore to rely upon Thee constantly, 
and to attempt the task courageously, whenever Thou callest me to 
do tt. 


STUDY XIII 
CHRISTS' CALL TO ATCIFE, WORK 


First Day: Enlisting for Life 


In his letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote (I Tim. 6: 12) 
“Fight the good fight of faith, Jay hold on eternal life, whereunto 
thou art also called.” He also begins his second letter to Timothy 
with these significant words, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by 
the will of God, according to the promise of life which 1s in Christ 
Jesus.’ Turn to John 5: 24, and read the declaration of our Lord, 
which is one of the great foundation texts of the New Testament, 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and be- 
lieveth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not 
come into condemnation; but 7s passed from death unto life.’ Paul 
illuminates these truths in Rom. 8: 2, “For the law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death.” Also in Rom. 6: 23, “The wages of sin is death; but the 
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

In our war experiences, or when we have standing armies to 
preserve order, men enlist for a period of years, at the end of which 
their obligation ceases. In our recent war they enlisted “for the 
duration of the war,” but expecting it to last only a few years at 
most. These facts give significance to Paul’s appeal for the loyal 
spirit of a good soldier on the part of every Christian. We have al- 
ready noted that our redemption involves Christ’s absolute right to 
all that we have and are. Therefore to the true Christian it never 
occurs that enlistment is for any part of his earthly life, for he 
belongs to Christ for time and eternity. Our only thought must be 
going all the way with our Lord in the way that he commands. 

We are told that when Julius Cesar planned the conquest of 
Great Britain, he took his soldiers to the shores of the islands, and 
then ordered some picked men in small boats to take burning 
torches and set fire to every trireme in the fleet. As the Roman 
soldiers saw their ships burn down to the edge of the sea and disap- 


144 


CHRIST'S CALE TOA LIFE WORK 145 


pear, they knew they could never return to Rome unless they 
conquered the people of those new lands. And as the British from 
the hilltops watched this amazing spectacle, they understood why 
Cesar was the conqueror of the world. It is just such a final 
absolute decision on our part to give ourselves to our Saviour once 
for all, and for everything that we are worth, that should mark our 
lives. If once we have caught the vision of the priceless value of 
Christ’s redeeming work in our behalf, and of our obligation to 
share that blessing with every other soul for whom he died, it will 
help us to make that unconditioned consecration. 

Hence every follower who has enlisted under the banner of the 
Captain of our salvation should seriously ask himself at the 
threshold of the Christian life—What may I do for Christ with my 
life so that he may use me to the limit in extending his cause 
throughout the earth? The challenge to do this is involved in the 
very principle of our allegiance to him. It especially applies to 
young people who have their life-work ahead of them. They 
should be making their choice early in the days of preparation, so 
that they may shape their course of study and daily Christian 
service with a view to the permanent service they are to render. 
It is hoped that the considerations which follow in this Study may 
prove helpful toward such decisions. 


PRAYER: “Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, 
By the power of grace divine.” 


Second Day: Success or Failure? 


It has been said that we have a way of calling anything a success 
or a failure according as it realizes what the form of its construc- 
tion shows its maker intended it to be or to do. For example, an 
umbrella shows from the form of its construction that its maker 
intended it to keep off the rain. We might use it for a walking 
stick, or for some other purpose; but unless it will keep off the 
rain, it is a failure as an umbrella. So a knife shows by its form 
of construction that its maker intended it to cut. It is sometimes 
used to hold up a window a few inches, or for other purposes, but 
unless it will cut, it is a failure as a knife. Moreover, if we had 
several machines with many features in common, but each had a 


146 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


special feature, as a rake, or a cutting blade, we would immediately 
say it was the purpose of the maker of each machine that it should 
be used in connection with its distinctive feature. 

Keeping these thoughts in mind, let us think of man as having 
many features in common with other forms of animal life, but 
having a distinctive endowment in the realm of the spirit, a moral 
quality which makes character possible, so that a man is lifted 
above every other creature into a class by himself, not simply a 
creature indeed, but akin to God in the nature of his moral and 
spiritual being. The logic of our thought compels us instantly to 
say it is perfectly evident, from the very form of man’s construction, 
that his Maker intended him to realize the particular development 
of his life in this high realm of his special endowment, where the 
supreme business of his life shall be to realize the will of God. 
There is no possible escape from this conclusion. Therefore, what- 
ever else a man may be or do during his earthly life, though he 
might amass enough gold to fill his grave, though he might shine 
with all the intellectual brilliance of Shakespeare, unless he shall 
realize the will of God for his life in seeking to be faithful in the 
high realm of spiritual values in a victorious manhood, we must 
write across the record of all other achievements—Bui, he is a 
failure as an immorial soul. 

It is not enough for us to be saved, if the will of God is to be 
accomplished in the earth. We have a striking illustration of the 
degrees of success that mark the life of a Christian, in I Cor. 3: 
11-23. Paul intimates that some nominal Christians will prove 
by their lives that they are not really Christ’s at all. These are 
“destroyed.” But there are Christians who have turned to God and 
have been regenerated by Christ and lifted into the divine sonship, 
who never get very far in loyal service. They are building on 
Christ, the only foundation; but they are building “wood, hay, 
stubble,’ and these will be tried as by fire. It would seem that they 
can only besmirch the foundation. Others will build “gold, silver, 
precious stones,’ and they will be in the class to whom Christ 
referred when he said in John 15: 8: “Herein is my Father glori- 
fied, that ye bear much fruit.” Let us pause here and earnestly 
ask ourselves—What is the real character of my building? How 
far is it glorifying God? 


CHRIST’S CALL TO A LIFE WORK 147 


Prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: iry me and 
know my thoughts: and see tf there be any wicked way in me, and 
lead me in the way everlasting.” 


Third Day: Measures of Manhood 


The most vital and positive thing in human living is to have 
Jesus Christ a vivid reality in the daily thinking of the individual. 
Our appreciation of the unattained is the measure of our ideal. 
Moreover, our conviction as to what is attainable is a definite 
inspiration to everyone who realizes that our Lord’s promise of 
available grace and power justifies all our hopes of being lifted inte 
his life and his victory. It is because Jesus Christ realizes to men 
the motive and the power for such an attainment that he is proving 
to be the Saviour of the world. We find in him reality and the 
invitation to share it. He himself is the perfect standard offered 
to us. Paul states the fact in Eph. 4: 13, “Till we all come in the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ.” The vision is ever the prerequisite to the realization of 
any ideal. There it shines for us in “the measure of the stature of 
the fullness of Christ.” 

But when we look around us and see what so many people are 
seeking as the objective of their lives, it is difficult to believe that 
they ever had a vision of God’s high thought for us all—they are 
striving after ends so utterly unworthy of their possibilities and 
powers, revealing perverted tastes and misguided judgments. Their 
measures of manhood are so pitifully inadequate. Let us note some 
of these. Some men measure manhood by millinery. It seems too 
superficial to mention, but some people pay more attention to their 
clothes than to their immortal souls. Some men measure manhood 
by muscle. To them life is found in the realm of the physical and 
the earthly. They see only the animal side of human relationships. 
High endowments of intellect and heart are subsidized to satisfy 
their desires on the level of the flesh. There is a proper place for 
the cultivation of physical health. Build a strong physical man- 
hood; but remember it is only the scaffolding on which to climb 
in building the nobler and more worthy structure of a Christ-like 
character, 


148 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Some men measure manhood by manners. They have an idea 
that outward forms of politeness make a gentleman, whereas it may 
be only veneer. We are to cultivate the amenities of life, but they 
are not of highest value. Some men measure manhood by money. 
They really count a man worthy of their consideration in view of 
the size of his bank account, although they are not always con- 
cerned about how he secured his wealth. We need not pause to 
speak of the recognized place of money; but there are values which 
gold cannot buy. Some men measure manhood by military genius. 
A few years ago we thought we had passed that day; but it is with 
us again. David could not build the temple of God because he was 
a man of blood and death. Some men measure manhood by music. 
The realm of art and esthetics is their life. We are to seek to 
realize our fullest development along all such lines, for God gave 
us all things richly to enjoy; but the tragic fact about so many 
artists is that they have an idea that their art exempts them from 
the moral standards that most self-respecting people observe. 

Some men measure manhood by mind. It is a splendid thing to 
master the world’s thought, its history, its philosophy, its science, 
its poetry, its sweep of literary achievement. Yet the man who sins 
against increasing light only adds to his condemnation. Some men 
measure manhood by morals. Here again we are on a high plane. 
Any man is worthy of our admiration who strives for purity in the 
individual life, fidelity in the home, integrity in business, efficiency 
in citizenship, unselfishness in philanthropy. But all this only 
involves man’s relations to his fellowmen, and does not go high 
enough. Let us pause here a moment, and ask ourselves whether, 
in fact, our measure of manhood stops at any of these levels. 
The point is not what we profess, but what we practice, to prove 
what we really believe to be the thing most worth having in the 
world. What is our enthusiasm? Does it reach higher than some 
one of these levels? 

Some men measure manhood by the man Christ Jesus. Here the 
distinctive fact is a recognition of man’s relation to the living God. 
Jesus Christ gives men a vision of the possibilities of human life 
when it is filled and made glorious by the indwelling life of God. 
His whole life reveals what God has made possible for every human 
soul to become. This is the true success of the redeemed soul. 


GHRIStrs CALICO A LINE WORK 149 


One may not have gold, nor physical health, nor social station, nor 
brilliant intellect, and yet be a splendid success as a child of God, 
for he is living primarily in that high realm of spiritual realities 
where God intended his distinctive life to be developed. Where 
do you find yourself, measured by this standard? 


PRAYER: Clarify my vision, O God, until I shall pierce through all 
shams and less worthy values, and be satished with nothing less 
than Thy highest purpose for me. 


Fourth Day: What Is Most Worth While? 


The logic of our Study carries us to the point of being able to 
realize what is most worth while in life. We have seen that we 
can realize God’s highest purpose for us only when we rise above 
all ambitions for earthly possessions, or social place, or any achieve- 
ment which seeks the praise of men rather than the praise of God. 
We have also seen that we glorify God by the fruitfulness of our 
lives as we fix our prayers and purposes upon the doing of his 
will, trusting him constantly to give us the joyful consciousness of 
his presence and power. It follows, without any possible question, 
that our particular objective on the side of service must be to 
help our fellowmen in their realm of special need, which is 
always in the spiritual life—where they, too, are to build char- 
acter as unto God. The apostle John suggests the thought in 
his third letter (v. 2), “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou 
mayest prosper and be in health, as thy soul prospereth.” 

Therefore, whatever we may have in our hearts to do for others, 
in the way of relieving their physical sufferings, or their bodily 
needs, or their unfortunate circumstances, we must realize that all 
these ministries, good and worthy in themselves, are secondary 
to the supreme need of all men. These ministries to the earthly 
side of human life do not go far enough, if we neglect to seek to 
have men know Christ and know him better. This conception of 
what is most worth while for us to seek to achieve will lead thou- 
sands, if they appreciate this truth to the point of purposing to at- 
tempt to practice it, to reconstruct their programs. They are not 
giving more thought to the spiritual welfare of others than to any- 
thing else, in their contact with people. They are not giving time to 


150 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


teach in the Sunday school. They are not giving time to those © 


gatherings at the church, where the various gifts and graces of 


Christians are cultivated and encouraged. Some of them are — 


scarcely loyal in church attendance, although they know that is 


always a distinct contribution to the cause of Christ in a com- 
munity, where one soon becomes known as faithful or indifferent 


to the set times for public worship. They are missing the thing 


most worth while in life. 

It will also mean one clearly definite and specific thing for all 
young people who have their Christian life ahead of them and have 
caught a vision of the truths we are seeking to emphasize. For 


we know well that the unescapable logic of these truths is that, 


when possible, one must give his whole time to direct Christian 
service of some kind. It may be the gospel ministry, or the work 
of a Christian missionary. It may be a medical missionary’s task, 
so full of opportunities to minister to both body and soul. It may 
be a Secretarial position which offers kindred opportunities for 
definite Christian service. It may be some sort of executive service 
in the way of business manager for large missionary or other enter- 
prises, so greatly needed in so many places. It may mean the 
position of a teacher in some Christian institution, at home or 
abroad, along the line of industrial training, or technical trade 
school work, increasingly needed. It will mean some sort of 
Christian work to which the whole life will be eagerly dedicated. 
It will mean that thousands of young people who have not faced 
this call of our Lord heretofore, will do so now, in this time of 
stupendous need. Will you hear this call of your Saviour for you? 


Prayer: Lord, when Thou dost say: “Whom shall I send, and 
who will go for us?” may I be ready to answer: “Here am I: send 
me.” 


Fifth Day: Where Does God Call Me? 


There is a clear principle covering the answer to this question. 
But there are so many details entering into each individual’s 
circumstances, that one must needs guard against a hasty con- 
clusion. At the same time, one would not be true to his Lord and 


his own soul, if he should incline to magnify the elements that would 


CHRIST’S CALL TO A LIFE WORK 151 


make his an exceptional case, rather than to exalt the principle 
and apply it faithfully. The principle is made clear in Acts 16: 
6-11. We there learn that Paul desired to go into certain sections 
of Asia Minor to extend the scope of his ministry; but the Holy 
Spirit restrained him from doing so. Then he had a vision of a 
man in Macedonia beseeching him, “Come over and help us.” 
There was no doubt in Paul’s mind that this was God’s call to 
preach the Gospel in Europe, so they were “obedient to the 
heavenly vision” and set sail in a straight course to the new field 
of labor, as yet untouched by the knowledge of Christ. 

The principle is this: God’s call is in the way of the larger need. 
Asia needed more men like Paul, even though there were many 
witnesses already there preaching the Gospel. But Europe had none. 
Its need was greater, in view of the lack of witnesses for Christ. 
We realize that one section of the earth needs Christ quite as much 
as another; but the relative need of any region is determined by the 
relative number of those who are at work there, giving to the people 
the blessings of the Gospel. Some years ago, when the writer 
was a pastor in New York City, he was also a member of our 
Board of Home Missions. One day Dr. Thompson handed him a 
letter from one of our missionaries in western Texas, by the name 
of Blois. His parish was a cattle-range section, where he spent 
most of his life in a saddle, preaching to hundreds of cowboys who 
would have a “religious round-up” for a day or so, when he visited 
them. Blois had received a call from a thriving little city in Texas, 
and was asking Dr. Thompson’s advice as to what he should do. 
He was told that we would pray that he might be divinely guided, 
but could not offer specific advice. 

Some days afterwards his reply came. It read, “We have de- 
clined the call. It was hard to do when we thought of the schools 
for the children, and of the neighbors for the family. But we 
decided it would be much easier to get a good man for that church 
than it would to find anyone who would love my boys the way 
we love them. We have decided to stay here for life.” It was 
the way of the larger need. Some two years ago we were in El 
Paso. On taking up the morning paper, we noticed the headline, 
“The Little Shepherd of the Texas Hills Has Entered into Glory.” 
It proved to be a column story of the marvelous blessing this one 


152 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


man had been to all western Texas, in his self-sacrificing labors 
running through a score of years. As we turned the pages, an 
editorial also greeted us, detailing how everyone loved and admired 
Blois for his long and fruitful Christian service, and suggesting 
how much worth while it is for one to give his life to a consecra- 
tion like this, whose blessings no man can number, as they extend 
through the years. 

The relative need is in different parts of our own land, among 
neglected groups of people in our cities, large and small, and most 
of all in non-Christian countries. There 1s a Christian minister 
in America to every five hundred of the people. Add to this all 
the workers in Christian institutions and various agencies who 
supplement the work of the ministry. Then remember that if 
you set aside twenty-five thousand people in the non-Christian 
lands for each missionary there, giving him also all the workers 
who supplement his efforts, there remain five hundred millions of 
immortal souls for whose salvation Christ died, who have never 
yet even heard of Christ. Moreover, for every dollar that we give 
for all kinds of Christian propaganda in non-Christian lands, we 
spend twenty-five dollars at home to maintain and develop the 
Church of Christ and Christian institutions. One will scarcely 
claim that the need is twenty-five times as great here at home as it 
is abroad. Here then is the call of God to each individual who has — 
felt the divine urge to give his or her whole life to Christian 
service. 


Prayer: Lord, let me know definitely Thy will for me. Help me 
to realize that if I am absolutely ready to respond to Thy call, 
without any drawing back, Thou canst more readily make the 
way plain for me. 


Sixth Day: Questions about the Cost of Fidelity 


These are the questions of the Surrendered Life and the Problem 
of Self-Denial considered in Study II, where we urged the duty | 
and privilege of enlisting others for Christ. There we applied the 
truth to every Christian, appealing to him to be a winner of souls 
to Christ and the Church, in the midst of all sorts of avocations. — 
Here we seek to apply it even more definitely to each follower 


CHRIST’S CALL TO A LIFE WORK 153 


of the Lord Jesus who is facing the conviction that the Master is 
calling him or her to give the whole life to Christian service. We 
ask that it be coupled with the considerations just presented in this 
Study, bearing upon the question of consecrating the whole life 
to the service of Christ and our fellowmen. 

Perhaps the appeal will be most helpfully reenforced if we note 
the testimony concerning our Lord himself, as he responded to 
the call of God, his Father, to give his life for our redemption. 
In Heb. 12. 2 we read that he “For the joy that was set before him 
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right 
hand of the throne of God.” What picture could stir our desire 
more keenly to follow in his footsteps than this account of his own 
fidelity at whatever cost? It is evident that Paul caught his own 
inspiration from Christ’s consecration, as we read in Phil. 2: 5-11, 
“Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, exist- 
ing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with 
God a thing to be grasped; but emptied himself, taking the form of 
a servant, ... and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 
Wherefore God also highly exalted him, and gave unto him the 
name which is above every name... that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

Paul’s testimony as to his own experience is just an echo of his 
Lord’s example, which he sought to follow. His motto was Gal. 2: 
20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that 
live, but Christ liveth in me.” His testimony is in Phil, 3: 7-11: 
“What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for 
Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the ex- 
cellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I 
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I 
may gain Christ, and be found in him... that I may know him, 
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffer- 
ings, becoming conformed unto his death; if by any means I may 
attain unto the resurrection from the dead.” Paul was in the prison 
at Rome when he wrote that statement. He had lost his position as 
the brilliant young Pharisee, with social prestige, and political 
favor; and now he was a beggar in a Roman prison, receiving alms 
from his Philippian brethren, to whom he was sending his thanks. 


154 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


His former world would have said, “What a miserable failure that 
young Saul of Tarsus has made!” But the Christian centuries 
give a different verdict, placing him at the very front of all the 
great leaders of Christian history. 

Think for a moment of the different stories that would have 
been written into human history, if Christ or Paul had hesitated to 
do the will of God because of what it would cost! Think of the 
self-denial of Moses, choosing rather to suffer with his people 
than to be the ruler of Egypt’s empire. Think of Daniel, choosing 
to face the lions rather.than to be unfaithful to his God. Think 
of the different story that would be written today if our soldiers 
had hesitated to do their duty, in the face of suffering and hardship 
and death. Ah, yes. Only because faithful men and women have 
turned their backs upon the allurements of earthly things, and have 
toiled up the pathway of sacrifice, with joy because of the privilege, 
is the world as far along as it is today in the way of light and hope. 

Shall we, too, have the spirit of the soldier? Shall we hesitate 
between the life in which self is on the throne that belongs to 
Christ, and the life that will go with him wherever he may lead, 
though it may mean Gethsemane also for us? It has been said 
that young Americans respond to an appeal to the heroic. Our 
soldiers did it on the field of battle, enduring all the privations that 
come to mind when we think of suffering hardship in the service 
of Christ, for those privations are all on the side of earthly comforts 
and pleasures. And shall we not be as good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ, ready to “fight the good fight of faith,” giving our lives for 
this most worthy of all the causes which challenge our allegiance? 


Prayer: O Christ of humiliation and of glory, let Thy mind be 
also in me. Let me take the form of a servant and be obedient all 
the way. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


A missionary in India wrote regarding a change from one station 
to another: “It was with little enthusiasm that I entered upon my 
new work. ... The call meant breaking many ties and friendships. 
. .. Discouragements faced us in the new field. ... Then God 
came to my help. He began by making things new in my own life. 


CHRIST’S CALL TO A LIFE WORK 155 


. . . God threw the searchlight of his Holy Spirit upon my life 
... 1 was beginning at the wrong end, and trusting to my own 
plans and efforts, rather than to the power of the Holy Spirit... . 
God has been teaching me. The Church must raise up men. 
Or rather God must raise them up in the Church.”  Spirit-filled 
men are God’s gifts to a praying Church. 

1. What Scripture is quoted to stress the fact that the Christian 
has entered upon eternal life? What comparison is given between 
the enlistment of soldiers of the nations and the soldiers of the 
cross? What incident is told of Cesar when he reached Britain? 
What most important question should every Christian ask himself 
when he first becomes a follower of Christ? 

2. How do we usually determine whether anything is a success? 
What special application must we make in man’s case? What 
special endowment has God given man? What does Paul teach 
about degrees of success in I Cor. 3: 11-23? What is the char- 
acter of your “building” on Christ? 

3. What is the measure of one’s ideal? How does Christ realize 
unto us the highest possible idealP Name the nine different 
standards given for measuring manhood, noting their relative value. 
What is the special significance in the measure that takes Christ as 
our ideal? 

4. What is the logic of the foregoing thought that determines 
the only worthy objective for us in our service as Christians? To 
what supreme form of help must all others be secondary in our 
desire to be helpful to our fellowmen? In order to be faithful 
in this duty, what will it be necessary for many church members 
to do? What does it specially mean to all who are facing the 
problem of their life-work? 

5. What is the principle which underlies God’s call to us to 
serve in a particular field, or some particular service? How does 
Paul’s experience illustrate this? Tell the story of Mr. Blois in 
Texas. Where is the greatest need for the knowledge of Christ 
today? 

6. What Study should be reviewed again as we face these ques- 
tions? Give the Scripture references which indicate the sufier- 
ings and self-denial of Christ. Give an account of the Scripture 
story of Paul’s sufferings for Christ’s sake. Where is it found? 


136 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


What difference would it have made if Christ, and the men men- 
tioned, had not been faithful, shirking their duty because of the 
hardships they faced in proving true? What is the appeal to us 
to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ? | 


PRAYER: Give me such appreciation of Thy constraining love, O 
Christ, that I too shall say with Paul, “Woe is me, if I give not my 
life to Thy service.” 


STUDY XIV 


ABIDING IN CHRIST—INCREASING FRUIT- 
FULNESS 


First Day: Christ Rightfully Expects Inceasing Results 


We are accustomed to give special significance to the last words 
of great men. Presumably they fix their thought on things most 
worth while, and some word of wisdom follows. We have reason 
to believe this was true of our Lord as he came to the end of his 
earthly ministry, and was giving commandment and exhortation 
to his disciples. An important record of one of his last utterances 
is found in John 15: 1-16, where he is stressing the thought to his 
disciples that God expects results from our lives, as the redeemed. 
“My Father is the husbandman,” and he expects results. Our Lord 
probably had in mind the challenge of the prophet Isaiah to Israel, 
in Isa. 5: 1-7, where he pictured Jehovah as having planted a 
vineyard with “the choicest vine,” and with the natural expectation 
of fruit: “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I 
have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring 
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” 

God has given us life, and has endowed us with capacities and 
powers and possibilities. We have noted in our last Study how 
these endowments involve the obligation upon us to seek to realize 
his intention for us, as it becomes evident in the nature of our 
being. Since this appeal is to Christians who recognize God’s 
right to our best, there is no need of argument here. We do need, 
however, to note that the fruitless branch is taken away, thrown 
aside as useless. How true it has been in the large lines of history ! 
Note the shattered splendors of forgotten greatness, the broken 
palaces, the buried cities, of empires that are gone. Why did they 
go down? Because they failed to produce the results which God 
always demands. They did not meet the deepest needs of the 
human soul. Only as branches bear fruit that will nourish and 


157 


158 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


strengthen the immortal spirits of men have they any right to 
continue to exist. 

Wendell Phillips often delivered a lecture on “The Lost Arts”; 
but the tragedy of history is not in its lost arts, but in its lost char- 
acters. And this brings our thought, illumined by the large lines 
of history, to the case of the individual soul without a spiritual 
victory, having no growth or fruitage in spiritual realities. What 
is the explanation of this failure? The context proves that the 
fruitless branch is the Christless branch. Yet people are trying to 
find a substitute for Jesus Christ, vainly imagining that something 
else will do as well. This is the supreme tragedy of human life, 
for it not only means being unfaithful to Christ, but even repudi- 
ates him as the source of victory. 

This failure in fruitless lives emphasizes the fact that our Lord 
expects all of us who take his name not simply to be somewhat 
fruitful, but to be making steady progress in increasing fruitfulness. 
Any business that stops continued development is in the way to 
bankruptcy. The tree that ceases to bear fruit has begun to decay. 
There is no standing still for the Christian. Either he must ad- 
vance or go backward. Christ mentions four classes of branches 
in the passage: (1) Those who bear no fruit; (2) those who 
bear some fruit, though not much; (3) those who bear much fruit; 
(4) those who bear more fruit. Here we reach the unlimited 
quantity. However far we may advance in Christ, there is still 
place for “more fruit.” It is this type of Christian who adds glory 
to the cause of his Lord, who ever seeks “more fruit’ in each of 
our lives. Let us note in the pages that follow some suggestions as 
to how we may be increasingly fruitful. 


Prayer: Make my relation to Thee, O Christ, so vital that Thy 
life shall fill my life in all its conscious activity, thus making certain 
an increasing fruitfulness in Thy service. 


Second Day: Deepening Our Friendship with Christ 


That is a far-reaching statement of our Lord, recorded in John 
14: 21, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it 
is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my 
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” 


ABIDING IN CHRIST—FRUITFULNESS 159 


This means knowing Christ better as we go on in fellowship with 
him. Let us think together definitely about the conditions to be met 
in order that not only we may abide in him, but that our abiding 
may deepen our friendship in such a way that our own life shall be 
sounded to deeper depths than it has known, and enriched beyond 
its present possession. There are three conditions, the cultivation 
of which must deepen and strengthen any and every friendship. 
Let us apply them very earnestly in our thought of deepening our 
friendship with Christ. 

The first condition to the development of a true friendship is 
that both must love the same things. We cannot go very far in 
loving anyone, unless we love the thing about which his life is 
centered, the thing which is his enthusiasm, for which he would 
die. We might be fond of incidental features that mark one’s 
earthly living; but until we go past all these into his inmost soul 
and know his deepest passion, we cannot really know him, nor 
understand him and his quenchless ardor for his supreme objective 
in life. To discover one who reveals his passion to be your own, 
his conception of life to be your own, this is to find a great awaken- 
ing of loyal devotion to him, because of the quality of his soul. 
His reaching out to you inevitably for sympathetic friendship in 
this life, which enlists both of your spirits in deepest loyalty, meets 
with a great wave of eager response from your own soul that is 
the finest expression of purest love. 

Now it is evident that the deepest passion in Christ’s life is a 
wonderful love for his Father in heaven, a love that penetrates 
and saturates all of his living. It is God’s redeeming love for 
lost men that explains Christ from first to last. All of Christ’s love 
for the lost is just a sharing of the Father’s love, in a oneness of 
spirit, manifest in his daily life and his atoning death. To enter 
into this divine love is possible for us. Take time to pore over 
the Word of God in order to learn better than ever to love the 
things that Christ loves. Not just a week, or a month, but at least 
three months. The result will amaze you. You will wonder that 
you never appreciated it before. Your prayer life will be deepened 
day by day, resulting in a new enriching of sympathy with Christ 
and with lost souls, and a heavier burden for the salvation of all 
men. This passion for the lost will be coupled with a holier joy 


160 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


that you have discovered the heart of Jesus Christ more surely, and 
that he has fulfilled his promise, “I will manifest myself unto him.” 

The second condition is mutual trust. Of course this is im- 
possible without the first condition. It is only as both love the 
same things that confidence develops in their understanding of the 
way they see life’s meanings together, and seek to realize its 
purposes. For us this condition is to be pressed on our side of our 
friendship with Christ. We have proved that we can trust him. 
This experience may be greatly developed, as we learn to look to 
him constantly in everything, and also to trust him without doubt- 
ing. But the point for our concern is, how far can our Lord trust 
us? It must be a mutual trust if the friendship is to go very deep 
into both lives. God once expressed such confidence in a man 
(Gen. 18: 19) and that explains why Abraham was known as 
“the friend of God.’ Is it presumption for us to hope to reach the 
place where we can say: “Dear Lord, you can count on me’? 

Once in the city of Chicago three of us were standing together. 
One of the three was suffering the most furious trial he had ever 
known. We were trying to find words of comfort and encourage- 
ment. Then another placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder and 
said: “Old man, you are going through the fire; but I want you 
to know that come what may come, you can count on me to stand 
by you to the end.” There was no bravado in those words. They 
revealed a quiet, strong friendship that was ready to make them 
good. However hesitant we may be to venture such a vow of 
loyalty to Christ, surely we should be satisfied with nothing less 
than a daily prayer for a loyalty which he can see and measure with 
his own loving eye. 

The third condition is mutual surrender. Here again we know 
how our blessed Lord has gone to the limit in his spirit of readiness 
to give himself to us, or to anyone who will accept him. The 
question for us is to discover how far we have surrendered to 
him all that we have and are. And since, in the nature of things, 
mutual surrender means mutual acceptance, it is evident that Christ 
must condition the degree of our friendship by the response that 
we have given to his eager desire to give himself fully to us and to 
receive us fully into his own life. That is an arresting statement 
in John 2: 24, “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because 





ABIDING IN CHRIST—FRUITFULNESS 161 


he knew all men.” He can only give himself in so far as we are 
ready to take him. We often feel the desire to have more of 
Christ in our lives. Very well, there is just one condition neces- 
sary, and it is within our power. We may have more of Christ by 
just so much as we are willing that Christ shall have more of us. 
This we can determine, point by point, wherever we know that we 
have not yet given ourselves fully to him. Shall we go further than 
we have gone? He is eager for a far deeper friendship than we 
have yet known together. Shall we look into his face and hesitate 
about our answer? 


PRAYER: Lord, help me to get past “Less of self and more of 
Thee” to “None of self and all of Thee.” 


Third Day: Steadfast Loyalty to the Will of God 


When Christ called his disciples to leave all and follow him, he 
offered them no dazzling cause, no alluring enterprise to whet 
their ambition. He offered them himself. Of them he asked one 
condition, which they must meet if they should remain with him; 
that condition was personal loyalty to him. He offered them his 
love and all that love will do for a friend, and he asked for their 
love in return. Now the fact which justified Christ’s demand for 
the loyalty of his disciples was his own constantly manifest loyalty 
to his Father in heaven, the living God. His disciples soon realized 
that the loyalty they were to give to him was to become one with his 
loyalty to the Father. We have a modern term for steadfast loyalty 
which may be applied here. We call it staying quality. 

One might summon many texts to emphasize Christ’s assertion 
of loyalty to the Father. Hear him saying (John 8: 29), “He that 
sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do 
always those things that please him.’ Again in his great prayer 
of intercession (John 17: 4), “I have glorified thee on the earth: 
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Moreover 
his loyalty to the will of his Father is identified with his loyalty to 
his followers (John 17: 19): “For their sakes I sanctify myself, 
that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” In this last 
phrase we are taught the concrete meaning of loyalty to the will 


162 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


of God. Since that will is revealed to us in God’s Word, we can 
only be loyal to his will as we are true to his Word. 

In that same prayer in John 17: 14, our Lord said: “I have given 
them thy word.’ That was a vital part of his duty in coming. 
Again, when he desired to lift up to the Father the finest fact he 
could mention about his disciples, he said (John 17: 6): “They 
have kept thy word.” Here is where the followers of Christ need 
staying quality. More than once Paul urged them to be faithful 
to the one gospel which he had preached unto them, as in Gal. 1: 
6-12. He wrote to the Ephesians (Eph. 4: 14, 15): “That we 
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about 
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning 
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the 
truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, 
even Christ.” 

Thus we immediately see what is involved in steadfast loyalty 
to the will of God. It is folly to try to imagine that two men can 
be equally loyal to God’s will, when one accepts only part of that 
revealed will. One will hold that loyalty must mean that we pro- 
claim that the sin question is at the heart of the Gospel, and that 
there is no salvation apart from the atoning work of Jesus Christ, 
whereas another will say we have grown past those teachings, and 
the thing now to do in developing up-to-date Christianity is to let 
the sin problem take care of itself by helping to better the social 
condition of men. It would be a safe statement to make that by 
so much as men hold to the full Word of God as the infallible rule 
of faith and life, they are fruitful in the things which mark our 
abiding in Christ. 


Prayer: Help us to be able to say with Thee, O Master, “I do 
always those things that please him.” 


Fourth Day: An Abiding Passion to Attain More Perfectly 


Here we have the key that unlocks the door of a larger fruit- 
fulness in Christian living. When one has a quickening vision of 
something better for us which fixes our determination, by the help 
of God, not to vegetate or drift along without a definite effort to 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, that soul will begin 


ABIDING IN CHRIST-—FRUITFULNESS 163 


to climb. To do this one must be eager, positive, and proud of the 
privilege. He will not go far until a taste of the joy and blessing 
of cultivating the friendship of Christ will strengthen his determin- 
ation to increase his definite program to that end. Paul has told 
us what the result will be in that beautiful statement in II Cor. 3: 
18, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory 
of the Lord, are transformed (changed) into the same image... 
even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 

We have here a law of spiritual photography. One essential to 
a good photograph is the proper time given to receive the impres- 
sion, according to the necessities of the case. Our ordinary photo- 
graphs require a second of time. The moon may be photographed 
in less than half a minute. But it is most interesting to observe the 
plans perfected by the astronomers to give hours of time to the 
photographing of a star. One more essential to friendship thus 
comes to light. Friendship requires time. A moment’s thought 
makes it quite evident that it is impossible to cultivate anyone’s 
friendship without giving time to that friend. Together with 
other essentials, the time factor must be granted at the start. 
There is no more common excuse given by those who are not culti- 
vating a personal relationship with Christ than “I have no time.” 

But we always have time, or make time, for anything we count 
important. The less important things must give way. The school- 
boy expects to give days to arithmetic. The young woman study- 
ing music plans to give hours every day to practice. The business 
‘man, as a matter of course, has decided to give “the best years of 
his life” in order to succeed. How manifestly then must we give 
time to God, if ever we grow into a blessed friendship with him. 
Many have proved that it is quite possible to do this, even in a 
very busy life. They modify their program and “put first things 
first.” When Daniel was the executive statesman in the Persian 
empire, and received news about Jerusalem that grieved his heart, 
he decided that he must give several days to God. The affairs of 
the greatest empire on earth could wait. Note, in Dan. Io: I-14, 
how he went down to the river Hiddekel and prayed and waited 
before God for twenty-four days. Then something resulted. 

Perhaps we could not specify a better example of our thought 
than the life of Mr. Moody. As a boy he had no opportunity for 





1644 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


the culture of the schools, and realized all along his limitations on 
the human side. But few men cherished a more burning passion 
than he to go all the way with God, in order that God might use 
him increasingly. And God did not fail to use him as few men 
have been used in our generation. His whole being was charged 
with a spiritual energy which never seemed exhausted. With 
victorious faith he counted on God, with his unlimited resources, 
all the time. Once he said he formerly gave ten minutes a day to 
God, for he must give an hour to the daily paper; but for years 
he could only give ten minutes to the paper, for he must have his 
hour with God. That one statement is a significant commentary 
upon his life, and a challenge to us to enter into his experience. 


Prayer: O Thou who art an available God, help me to realize 
how eager Thou art to give Thyself to me in such fullness as I 
shall make it possible for Thee to give. | 


Fifth Day: Grace Sufficient for Every Victory : 


The philosophy of Christian growth involves increasing victory. 
in the inner life. Just at this point the postman brought a letter 
from a dear brother whose life has been marvelously transformed 
in the last five years. Then he was indifferent to spiritual realities 
and was going the way of the world. God touched him through a 
sermon he heard in Boston, and led him step by step, using various 
means of grace, into a close and still closer fellowship with Christ. 
In this letter he writes: “I don’t consider that I am yet ‘crucified 
with Christ’ Being crucified with Him has been only words with 
me, and will be until I am absolutely dead to self. It means some-. 
thing to be dead to self, to get rid of owr ways, and our thinking, 
and be humbled sufficiently to get the mind of Christ and be led of 
the Spirit. This is the thing I am pulling for now. I am earnestly 
seeking to please Him in every Hing: This takes time. The best 
of it is it’s ‘glorious going’ while we are getting ready.” 

When one thinks back five years to what this man was then, and 
realizes how God can give grace sufficient to overcome ee 
temptation that one can face, the actual fact becomes very concrete, 
for the thing has been done before one’s eyes. This man was a 
church member, a college graduate, a cultured gentleman, Wwhou 





ABIDING IN CHRIST—FRUITFULNESS 165 


many people would have thought to be “getting along all right.” 
But he will tell you that Christ had no real place in his life. 
Moreover, when he first began to “return to the Lord,” he’ came 
slowly to the place of a great longing for the deeper blessing. One 
may recall instances mentioned in previous Studies as proof of the 
fact that God gives grace sufficient for every victory, when we turn 
to him in the spirit of this brother. For the vital fact is that the 
way of victory opens only to those who catch the spirit of this letter. 

It has been said “there is not only a death to sin, but a deeper 
death to self.” Rather let us say that self is the root of all sin, 
and we never die to sin until we die to self. Sometimes God helps 
us to die to self by allowing us to go through sufferings, privations, 
financial reverses, in that these experiences tend to strip us of self- 
importance and any thought of self-sufficiency. Paul tells us that 
God allowed him to know this “chastening,” which is not punishing, 
but making chaste. In II Cor. 12: 7-10, he tells us of his “thorn 
in the flesh” and how he prayed “that it might depart” from him; 
but the Lord said: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength 
is made perfect in weakness.” And Paul looked away from him- 
self, with his suffering, exclaiming: “Most gladly therefore will I 
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
upon me.” 

Here again we must realize that the condition to this experience 
of victory through Christ is an obedient, trusting faith. Not simply 
a faith that looks for help in times of need; but a faith that eagerly 
enters open doors in God’s great treasure house of grace, whether 
they be doors of suffering, or any other discipline. Some years ago 
a godly woman came to the writer to tell him of a great blessing 
she recently had experienced in a sense of nearness to the 
Heavenly Father, such as she had not known before. She had said 
little about it, but wanted her pastor to know. Some weeks later 
the morning papers startled us with the announcement that the 
business with which her husband was connected had failed. One 
could not say much in the way of comfort, for there was a whisper 
of dishonesty. Some days later she said: “A few of my friends, 
who knew of my recent blessing, have been telling me this is a 
trial of my faith. I do not think so. I believe that my Heavenly 
Father saw this awful thing coming, and in his loving wisdom did 


166 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


not deem it best to prevent it, so he drew me closer, so that when 
it came, I would be able to bear it.” Was anything ever more 
glorious than that? And the glory of it was that in her moment 
of keenest grief, her soul was bathed with a sense of the marvelous 
love of God. That is grace unto victory. 


Prayer: Lord, help me to remember, in every time of need, what- 


ever that need may be, that Thou yt saying to me: “My grace is 


sufficient for thee.” 


Sixth Day: Fruits of the Spirit Within and Withou 


There is a fact of transcendent interest for us as finite beings, 
namely, that on one side of our natures there is no limit set to 


our growth, and that is the side where we may grow Godward, in 
the fellowship of Christ. In that fellowship alone can we do this, — 
as our Lord clearly teaches, in John 14: 6, “Jesus saith unto him, © 


I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the _ 


Father, but by me.” We have already magnified the truth that all 


our growth is the result of the working of the Spirit of God in our — 
lives. Hence we have Paul’s reference to the “fruit of the Spirit” — 
in Gal 5: 22-24, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 


against such there is no law.” “And they that are Christ’s have 
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” 


K 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control: d 
q 
: 
f 
{ 


for winning others to Christ. When a Christian has found the 
grace of God sufficient to give him the victory over a quick temper, 
he is far better able to deal with anyone who is out of Christ. God 


can use him better than it was possible before. The principle 


applies to every other weakness that may be overcome by his suffi- 
cient grace. Thus we have both quality and quantity in the fruit 
of the Spirit. As we give Christ his mastery within, his Spirit 
gives us increasing mastery as his ambassadors to others. 

Instances might be multiplied by way of actual proof of this power 
of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ Henry M. 
Stanley testified before thousands on his return from Africa, that 
he went to that dark continent an agnostic and skeptic as to the 
reality of the Christian religion. But yonder in the heart of 


ee 





ABIDING IN CHRIST—FRUITFULNESS 167 


Africa, where he lived day after day with David Livingstone, he 
could not resist the power of the Spirit of God working in his own 
life through Livingstone’s living faith and beautiful fidelity. He 
accepted Christ and promised his Lord that if he should ever reach 
the home countries again, he would both confess his Saviour and 
also testify to Livingstone’s influence as a “living epistle, read and 
known of all men.” 

In the home of Dr. Goheen, in western India, a servant was 
dusting the room and carelessly upset a beautiful vase, which fell 
to the floor broken into many pieces. Filled with fear, in view of 
experiences with certain foreigners whom he had formerly served, 
he fell to the floor begging for mercy. Quietly Dr. Goheen said: 
“Never mind. I forgive you.” In utter amazement the sweeper 
looked at the smiling face, where no trace of anger was visible. 
Then leaping to his feet he exclaimed: “I believe. I believe!” On 
being asked what he meant, he replied that he had not been greatly 
‘impressed by the claims for Christianity, because of what he had 
seen in the lives of some professing Christians. But since he had 
come into Dr. Goheen’s home, he had felt a different atmosphere, 
and had begun to realize a power in Christianity such as he had 
not seen before. And when he found that a man could be as patient 
and forgiving as Dr. Goheen had just been, in such aggravating 
circumstances, he was suddenly convinced by a strange power that 
swept over his being, that it was Jesus Christ who had accomplished 
this beautiful thing in the life of the Christian missionary. Hence 
his exclamation signified that he, too, believed in Christ’s power to 
save and transform the believing soul. Thus the fruit of the Spirit 
is manifest within and without. 


Prayer: Help us to glorify Thee, O God, in our bodies and in 
our spirits which are Thine. 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


When a human soul is truly growing, it is restive at the idea of 
confinement. It is the spiritual earnest of still larger possibilities 
leaping out in response to the call of the mighty God. Hence the 
eager longing of all who have caught the vision of the victory in 
Christ to push on to its increasing consummation. It means being 


168 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


so consecrated to God as to make it possible for Christ to say: “As 
the Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20: 21). 

1. What significance should we attach to the last words of 
Christ? What does he expect at our hands? Why? Mention the 
lessons of history to prove that a fruitless branch is taken away. 
What is the real tragedy of history? What four classes does 
Christ mention in speaking of bearing fruit? 

2. What statement does our Lord make in John 14: 21? What 


three conditions are given for deepening our friendship for Christ? | 


Dwell upon each as it is developed in this lesson. 


3. What condition did Christ ask of those who became his — 


followers? What Scripture is given to indicate Christ’s loyalty to — 


his Father? What is involved in loyalty to the will of God? How 
will difference of opinion as to the teaching of Scripture involve 


different practice in daily life? 


4. What is the key that unlocks the door to larger fruitfulness? 
What statement of Paul’s is quoted here? What is essential to 


photography? Illustrate somewhat. Why must we give God time? © 


Illustrate the way people plan to give time to certain things. Tell 
how Daniel gave God time. How did Moody illustrate the idea? — 

s. Where must we have victory, if it be real? What is the — 
idea running through the letter mentioned at this point? What is 
the story told of the writer of this letter? What is the relation | 


of self to sin? How does God’s chastening often help us? What 


was Paul’s experience? What is said about the need of faith here? © 
Tell the story of the woman who had a blessing before her time 


of trial, and her interpretation of its meaning. 


6. On what side of our finite being are we unlimited? Where ~ 


does Paul mention the “fruit of the Spirit’? What is the list 
given? How does this growth within help in the service without? 


Tell the story of Stanley in Africa. Tell the story of Dr. Goheen — 
and his servant in India. Can you mention a case within your own — 
knowledge where a consistent Christian life influenced another to 


confess Christ? 


PRAYER: Give me the victory within, O Lord, that it may shine 
out until profession will not need to be emphasized, as possession — 


becomes manifest. 





STUDY XV 
THE BLESSED REWARDS 


First Day: Christ Emphasizes the Place of Rewards 


The teachings of our Lord abound with the thought that rewards 
follow the fidelity of believers. We must not confuse, for one 
moment, God’s gift of salvation with his rewards to his children. 
Salvation is not a reward, for man does nothing to earn it or 
deserve it. Paul states the truth clearly in Eph. 2: 8, 9, “For by 
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is 
the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” But 
having become children of God, we are given constant incentives to 
prove the reality of our faith by our works (James 2: 14-20), and 
are taught that the degree of our fidelity here will determine our 
place in the Kingdom of God. Recall again I Cor. 3: 11-15, 
where we are told of the different kinds of building on the one 
foundation, Christ Jesus. The same idea is in the parable of the 
feast (Luke 14: 7-11), where all who accept the invitation are 
welcomed to the feast, but some are told to take the lowest room, 
while others are called to go up higher. 

There has been considerable discussion as to the ethics of re- 
wards, in connection with motives, in the life of the true Christian. 
Beyond question, a sincere Christian is prompted to be faithful, not 
in the hope of reward, but in the eager desire to prove his loving 
gratitude, always inadequate, because of God’s unspeakable gift of 
redeeming grace which has been vouchsafed unto us. In so far as 
any Christian gives place to selfish motives, in the thought of 
rewards, his spirit is unworthy. Doubtless when we turn away 
from our sin, there is a fear of punishment that influences us, even 
more than a hope of reward. That idea does not have much place 
ina penitent heart. Rather is his the spirit of the prodigal (Luke 
15: 17-19), whose only thought is of his unworthiness to be called 
a son; while his hope is in his father’s forgiving love which will 
perhaps allow him to be as a hired servant. 


169 


170 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


Our Lord would seem to assume sincere motives as he speaks of 
reward and recompense for the faithful children of God. And this 
is not a factitious thing, to be admitted or rejected in connection 
with conduct, as one may choose. Rewards are in the very nature 
of things. One cannot but be affected for good or ill by every 
thought, word, and act. There is inevitable gain or loss in the 
character of the individual, either in the conscious joy of honest 
achievement, or in the sting of conscience in the sense of wrong- 
doing. The reflex influence is as certain as that upon the life we 
touch. We cannot escape the consequences in so far as they affect 
character. 

Beyond this, our Lord teaches that it is a worthy motive to 
cherish, to be true because of the results that will follow in the 
blessings that we shall bring to others and the joy that we shall 
bring to the heart of God. The flush of victory that we may know 
has in its keenest element of satisfaction the consciousness that 
someone else has been helped and that we may look up into the face 
of our Father to receive his smile. The thought is reenforced in 


Heb. 12: 2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our — 


faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne 
of God.” We may also note the seven promises in Rev. 2 and 3, 
“to him that overcometh.” Hence we may make the most of every 
motive that is quickened by the worthy hope of reward in our own 
lives, in the lives of others, and in the added blessing of our Father 
and Judge. 


Prayer: Help us, O Lord, to “lay up treasures in heaven,” re- 
membering the word of Jesus, “where your treasure 1s, there will 
your heart be also.” 


Second Day: Realizing God’s Purpose for Us in This Life 


Every loyal Christian will have for his first thought of reward 
the satisfaction of accomplishing somewhat the things that God 
wants him to be and to do here during the earthly life. This is in 


the very front of Christ’s thought, as he comes to his Father, in — 
John 17: 4, in that great prayer which is the inscript of his continu- — 
ing intercession, to make some report of his earthly ministry, “I 





ne 


a 
& 


THE BLESSED REWARDS 171 


have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do.” Also, in v. 8, “I have given unto them the words 
which thou gavest me.” It is also evident from the tone that runs 
through the parable of the talents, Matt. 25: 14-23, that our Lord 
counts the element of greatest joy in the report of the faithful 
servants to be the fact that they have accomplished that which their 
Lord expected of them, rather than the additional talents they were 
able to bring. 

Underlying our sense of Christian stewardship there is also an 
appreciation of the fact of our partnership with God. “We are 
laborers together with God” (I Cor. 3: 9), and a part of the 
incentive to fidelity is found in the recognized obligations of part- 
nership. It is the old idea of the covenant with God, which he 
himself started and which those who entered into cherished as 
involving the deepest sense of honor of which we are capable, in 
being faithful to our part of it. We have it most keenly recog- 
nized today in our idea of a fiduciary trust, whose obligations seem 
specially to command the highest sense of honor and fidelity to the 
welfare of those whose interests are in our keeping. This is the 
spirit that should have fullest place as we think of being faithful 
in our partnership with God. 

Moreover, the sharing of God’s life and service goes deeper, 
for as we are taught in II Pet. 1: 4, we are “partakers of the divine 
nature.” John also has this in mind when he declares (I John 1: 
3), that our partnership is “with the Father, and with his Son, 
Jesus Christ.” Hence fidelity means not simply that we are ad- 
vancing God’s interests in the progress of his Kingdom, but that we 
are also advancing our own interests as factors in the progress of 
his Kingdom, not simply for time, but for eternity. We have noted 
heretofore that we are counted a success, or a failure, according 
as we accomplish that which God has indicated in the very nature 
of our being he intended us to do. Thus it is evident that we 
realize God’s will by developing our capacities and possibilities to 
the full in laboring together with him in the realization of his plan 
for men. Our reward is immediate in an enlarged, enriched life. 

The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury was not an ordained minister ; 
but no man ever had a clearer vision than he of the fact that God 
calls every man to be a partner with him in the divine-human task 


172. ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


of redeeming the lost. His biography reads like a dream of ideals 
realized in actual living. As a member of Parliament he secured 
more legislation than any other man of his time in behalf of shorter 
hours of labor, relief of child labor, adequate care of dependent and 
defective peoples, improvement of chimney sweeps and costers, and 
many other classes of the poor. He founded night schools into 
which he gathered waifs and young criminals and helped hundreds 
to find the way of a second chance. He established pensions for the 
aged. After hours in Parliament, instead of going home to rest, he 
went to the dark haunts of London to find and persuade some of 
the youth hiding there to come to one of the missions. He was 
president of more benevolent and missionary societies than any 
other man in England. On his deathbed he was offered burial in 
Westminster Abbey, but declined it, prefering his own quiet church- 
yard. He was not seeking the praise of men. He knew he had 
beén trying to realize the purpose of God for him in this life, and 


that was his sufficient reward. His was the hope of heaven, but his » 


heart was filled with thanksgiving and peace because of his honest 
effort to be faithful here. 


PRAYER: Help me to realize, O Lord, that the anticipation of joy 
in heaven loses half of its attractiveness unless I know that I have 
sought to be faithful here, in the midst of the world’s need. 


Third Day: Sharing the Fellowship of Christ’s Joy Now 


Twice in one address our Lord repeated a declaration about the 
joy in heaven “over one sinner that repenteth’’ (Luke 15: 7, 10). 
He gives us a most significant glimpse into his inmost soul in those 
words, for beyond doubt his deepest joy is in the consciousness that 
he has saved immortal souls from sin and death. This is the 
“boundless joy” of heaven and explains much of the glory of the 
abiding places in the mansions of God. This is the joy that throbs 
in the song of the radiant host that will ascribe endless praises to 
their Saviour. : 

And this same joy may be ours here and now. If you have 
never tasted that joy, we beg of you not to miss it. How can you 
go empty-handed into the presence of God without having helped 
one single soul to know Jesus Christ, and enter with much en- 


oat 


eS ee es ee 





THE BLESSED REWARDS VK: 


thusiasm into the joy of heaven? You will have the joy of thanks- 
giving for your own salvation; but how can you enter into the joy 
of those who have been partners with the Lord in saving the lost? 


“But none of the ransomed ever knew 
How deep were the waters crossed, 
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, 
Ere he found his sheep that was lost. ... 
But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, 
And up from the rocky steep, 
There rose a cry to the gates of heaven, 
‘Rejoice! I have found my sheep!’ © 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 
‘Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own!’ ” 


We talk of being in fellowship with Christ; but how can it be any 
sort of understanding fellowship, that is truly sympathetic, if we 
never share here the fellowship of his joy in the salvation of the 
lost? It would seem the sheerest cant to talk about fellowship 
with him, without this element which was the very heart of his 
life on earth. On the other hand, ten thousand Christians will 
testify that there is no joy known to the human heart like this 
joy that comes when we realize that God has used us in winning 
a friend or neighbor to Jesus Christ. 

Years ago in the city of Cincinnati a man sixty-five years of age 
was led to accept Christ as his Saviour. His joy was touching to 
see, and it was shining in his face continually. But he had a son in 
Honolulu who was not a believer, and a great burden was heavy 
on his heart for that son. At mid-week services he always re- 
quested prayers for his boy, and many entered into a faithful 
ministry of intercession. But the letters from the son were dis- 
couraging. One day the father announced that he was going to 
Honolulu to win his boy to Jesus Christ. We had a special fare- 
well meeting at the midweek service, where we lifted father and 
son up to God, for a safe and successful journey. Day by day we 
remembered our covenant of prayer for them. Weeks passed before 
we heard. Then the message came. His boy was saved! How 
well we remember the joy of that father when he returned and told 


174 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


us the story. He believed letters would not have accomplished the — 
task. It was when he entered into the spirit that brought Christ — 
down from heaven, and sailed away to save his boy, that God 
blessed his ministry of prayer and testimony and appeal. 


Prayer: God forbid that I should appear before the throne, where 
we all must give an account, with not a single soul as a token of 
my fidelity. 


Fourth Day: The Blessedness of Being, Rather Than of 

Having 

We have noted that the Beatitudes of Christ (Matt. 5: 1-12) set 
before us the way of the blessed life, and that the key to Christ’s 
philosophy of life is in his emphasis of the truth that life’s blessings 
are found, not in having, but in being. He emphasizes this further 
in Matt. 5: 13, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have 
lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” The ultimate riches 
are not those that can decay with time. These two categories of 
wealth were in Christ’s mind when he said (John 6: 27): “Labor 
not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth 
unto everlasting life.” 

The supreme values are in character, and they all inhere in the 
character of our Father in heaven. Salvation lifts us into the life 
of God, and its ultimate consummation will be redemption, not only 
from the penalty and power of sin, but also from its presence, as we 
stand before the throne, and behold the King in his beauty. As 
Paul describes the experience, beholding and reflecting the glory of 
the Lord, we shall be transformed into the same image, from glory 
to glory of character, even as by the Lord the Spirit. (II Cor. 3: 
18). This is what John anticipates as he says (I John 3: 2): “We 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” And he follows 
with the thought we have been seeking to emphasize concerning the 
motive for fidelity here, and the fruit of it hereafter, “And every 
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is 
pure.” Thus it is evident that in the heavenly life we share the 
character of God. This is the supreme blessedness of being. 

We may taste this blessedness here and now. Someone has 
asked the question, “How much would you be worth, if you lost 


THE BLESSED REWARDS 175 


all your money?” It is a striking commentary upon our ordinary 
thinking to note that if one were to ask of another, “How much is 
he worth?” it would immediately be taken for granted that the 
questioner desired to know how much money the man possessed! 
After the battle of Naseby, King Charles sent the message to his 
mother, “All is lost save honor.” Such a spirit counted honor worth 
more than earthly crowns. Some years ago two men visited this 
country. One was George Mueller, of Bristol, England. Through 
practically all of his mature life he had lived not knowing how his 
needs would be provided for a week ahead. But he had a 
marvelous sense of the nearness of God and of the divine sufficiency 
ever available for him. People who heard him realized that he 
revealed a Christ-like life whose spiritual values money could never 
buy. Many who heard him forgot their earthly wealth in their 
hunger for this priceless bread. 

The other man was Andrew Murray, coming from South Africa, 
bringing an experience, out of which his testimony came with 
power, of the truth that men may know rich blessings that the 
average Christian never receives, if they seek the inner chambers 
of the King, especially the place which he described as “The Holiest 
of All.” Hungry souls thronged to hear him, for they felt, as they 
touched his life, that he lived his message. He, too, had nothing 
of this world’s goods; but his were the priceless riches of godliness. 
A multimillionaire might do far-reaching good with his wealth; 
but at the end, looking onward into the heavenly life, where gold 
is not the coin of spiritual exchange, who would hesitate as to 
which of these two lives he would choose to carry before the face of 
God? Even so, it is as we cherish the blessedness of being here, 
that we shall be able to possess its joys forever. 


Prayer: Let the truth of this lesson sink down deep inio my soul, 
O God, until I may know the standard of the apostle, to keep him- 
self “unspotted from the world.” 


Fifth Day: Welcomed into Everlasting Habitations 


In the so-called parable of the “Unjust Steward” (Luke 16: 1-13) 
we have a very illuminating sentence which includes the thought 
in the title of this lesson. This parable has not always been rightly 


176 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


understood. The shrewdness of the steward was praised by his 
lord, or employer; but not by our Lord Jesus Christ, for he never 
approved anyone’s conduct that was not absolutely just and honor- 
able. Like most of Christ’s parables, this one was probably based 
on an incident known to his hearers. After referring to it, he 
turned to the disciples and stressed the fact that they were stewards, 
and would do well to consider what kind of account they could 
render unto God. He asks the same question of us today. What 
must be our answer? f 

In this connection our Lord makes the statement about the 
mammon of unrighteousness. The Authorized Version unfortu- 
nately translates the Greek, “Make to yourselves friends of the 
mammon of unrighteousness.” (This is contrary to Christ’s teach- 
ing about riches. There is no text that justifies us in setting our 
hearts upon getting wealth. Christ taught in Matt. 19: 23-26, that 
for most men wealth hinders our spiritual growth. Rich people are 
liable to think too much of self in the realm of having, which is 
seriously dangerous. The Revised Version properly translates the 


Greek, “Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of — 


unrighteousness; that when it shall fail, they [the friends] may 
welcome you into the eternal tabernacles (dwelling places).” This 
is a very different statement, and it is the true one. 

Mammon is the god of this material world. The God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of the spiritual world. No 
man can serve both. He is giving his first allegiance either to 
mammon or to God. When serving mammon he is using the things 
of God. When serving God he is using the things of mammon. We 
have to do with both. Every man is either mammon’s master or its 
servant. Stewardship involves using both the things of God and 
of mammon. Christ’s teaching is that we should use our money, 
or any earthly position we may attain, with its attendant influence, 
in order to advance the Kingdom of God in the earth. And he 
specially stresses the fact that the specific thing for Christians to 
do is to win souls to himself, so that when the earthly possessions 
are gone into the dust of the grave, the immortal souls, saved from 
the slavery of sin, will live on forever. And as the shrewd steward 
planned for a welcome in his days ahead, so Christ urged that we be 
faithful, because it will also mean for us in that day a welcome 


ee ie Be - 


THE BLESSED REWARDS 177 


by some of those whom we have been allowed to help to find the 
way everlasting. 

Let us seek to visualize the actual experience suggested by the 
words of our Lord. A child of God approaches the joyous throng 
of the redeemed, looking specially for loved ones, reunion with 
whom has been an ardent anticipation for years. These are seen 
just a little back of some others who are allowed to have a front 
place as he draws near. What can this mean? He is soon 
informed. At the very front is a redeemed saint from India who 
hastens to give him the glad welcome, saying: “It was your money 
that helped to send the missionary who brought to me the knowl- 
edge of the salvation which God had provided in Christ.” Another 
joins in the welcome, exclaiming: “It was your money that paid 
for a Bible which came to me in the heart of Africa, wherein I 
learned of the way of life through Jesus.” Still another will say: 
“You brought a message one day in the city of Chicago that led 
me to the feet of our Saviour. Welcome into the everlasting habi- 
tations.” It was some such picture, we may reasonably believe, 
that was in the mind of Christ, as he pointed their thought forward 
to that day of unspeakable joy. Then all the hardship, all the self- 
denial, all the cross-bearing will be forgotten forever i in the sense of 
compensation a hundred-fold. 


Prayer: Help me to look past every cross, O Christ, as Thou 
didst, and see the joy beyond every earthly trial, waiting for all the 
endless years. 


Sixth Day: The Glories of the Redeemed 


In Christ’s great prayer of intercession we have a statement 
which at once looks back to the glory which was his before his 
earthly ministry, and forward to the day when the redeemed are 
gathered with him in the presence of God the Father. In John 17: 
24, we read: “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given 
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which 
thou hast given me: for eno lovedst me before the foundation 
of the world.” Here it is evident that the central experience in the 
glory of the redeemed is to be the glory of the Redeemer, in which 
his own are to share. In Rey. 21: 22, 23, we read, “I saw no 


178 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the 
temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun . . . to shine in 
it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof.”’ 

Again, in Rev. 21: 9-11, we read that one of the angels came unto 
John and said: “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s 
wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high 
mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
scending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.’ The 
mere words cause us to pause, as we try to appreciate even in our 
poor, inadequate way, what that means. For we have learned to 
enter into some appreciation, however insufficient, of the glory 
of God. We have already noted that the redeemed shall share the 
very life of God, which means to be like him in his beauty of holi- 
ness, in his splendor of loving justice, in his eager spirit which 
has led him ever to be giving himself to all living beings who were 
ready to receive him, his life, his love, his knowledge, his power. 
We call it consecration to service, and nothing in the glory of our 
God is so fascinating in its matchless values as this. 

But now we are to try to realize the glory of all this, as the 
Redeemer comes to that day, of which he was thinking long ago, 
when he said (Mal. 3: 17), “They shall be mine in that day when I 
make up my jewels.” The diamond gathers all its glory from the 
sun, as the carbon develops its processes of crystallization unto 
perfect purity. And at the same moment that the diamond receives 
its glory from the sun, it also glorifies the sun in return by its 
constant reflection of that glorious light from each of its polished 
facets. Perhaps we have here a suggestion of a like experience on 
that wonderful day of glory. There will be something about each 
redeemed one that will be like the Lord himself, some feature of 
Christ-like character that has come to such perfection that everyone 
will recognize that particular glory of character as reflecting his 
own image. Some will reveal more than one, possibly several. 
Our finite minds are bewildered at the mental picture of such glory 
of character as shall make heaven a place of unspeakable bliss. 

All this awaits the redeemed. How can one think of it in 
prospect and be complacent at the thought that someone may 
miss it all, because we have not been faithful witnesses for our 


THE BLESSED REWARDS 179 


Lord, or because during the years to come we may still prove in- 
different to our opportunities to point one and another to him who 
is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? In soberness we should 
hold our thought in the face of this challenge. For every glimpse 
of reward is given us as an incentive to our fidelity. Our Lord him- 
self has taught us the relation between our faithful service here 
and the reward to be received in his presence. In Matt. 25: 14-23, 
in that part of the Parable of the Talents which contains the reports 
of the faithful servants, we note his statement that the best he 
can,say for us will be, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things.” 
Let us measure that careful word of Christ. To be faithful in a 
few things, really faithful, will be an attainment revealing our 
submission to the will of God, and our dependence upon his needed 
grace, that will glorify him in so far as it will mean that self has 
died and Christ has lived in us. That will explain the Christ-like 
quality that will shine out at that great day. By just so much as 
Christ has lived in, he will shine out. It will be this glory of 
character that will enable people to recognize a likeness to him in 
“a few things,” so that he will confess us before his Father as his. 
There will be no factitious judgment. Paul explains it in I Cor. 
3: 13, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest ... of what 
sort it is.’ The Latin Vulgate translation of that word is qualis. 
The quality of the diamond, rather than its size, is in its capacity to 
reflect the light of the sun in increasing perfection. This will be 
the glory of the redeemed, having a part in reflecting the unspeak- 
able glory of our blessed Redeemer, world without end, Amen. 


Prayer: We thank Thee, O God, our Father, that Thou dost 
make us “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light.” 


Seventh Day: Suggestions for the Class 


“They sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy .. . for thou 
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth. 
... Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and bless- 


180 ENLISTING FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 


ing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and 
under the earth, and in the sea, and aij that are in them, heard 
I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” 
GCReyi G0, i2y 3 3h)¢ 

1. What is Christ’s teaching about rewards? Make the dis- 
tinction between salvation as a gift, and the place of reward in 
the Christian life. Why are rewards inevitable? What Scripture 
is given to show that Christ himself had his reward in mind during 
his earthly ministry? 

2. What is the first element of satisfaction in our thought of 
reward? What is the point mentioned in the Parable of the 
Talents? What is said of our partnership with God? How do we 
think of a fiduciary trust? In what way does our partnership go 
deeper? Tell the story of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. 

3. Where in Scripture does Christ emphasize the joy of 
heaven? What does he say is the occasion of that joy? What is 
necessary to real fellowship with Christ here? Tell the story of 
the man in Cincinnati who went to Honolulu. 

4. What is the philosophy of life taught in the Beatitudes? 
How are we to share the life of God? How may we do this now 
and here? What occurs to us when we are asked what anyone is 
worth? What message did King Charles send to his mother? 
What is said about George Mueller? What of Andrew Murray? 

5. What misunderstandings have some had about the Parable 
of the Unjust Steward? What is the correct translation of the 
Greek? How do we relate ourselves to God and mammon? How 
is the welcome into everlasting habitations pictured? 

6. Where does Christ mention the glory of the redeemed? 
What does he say about it? What is said in the quotation from 
Rev. 21: 9-11? How is God sharing himself with us now? What 
is illustrated by the diamond? How does the thought of the 
reward challenge us? What does Christ say about the degree of 
our faithfulness? How shall we be recognized as his at that day? 


PraveR: Grant, O Lord God, in Thy gracious goodness, that 
these Studies may prove an abiding blessing to every soul who 
reads them. 





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